Luv Game
by Jelotto
Summary: It's Sora's senior year and she has two goals: make it to the National High School Championships in tennis and go out with the guy of her dreams. However, it looks likes it's going to be hard to accomplish either of them, TAIORA
1. Chapter 1

**Hey-o! I recenly started to get back into digimon, and discovered the wonderful world of fanfiction! After reading this stuff for a while I've finally decided to try my hand at it.**

**And what fanfic would be complete without mentioning the fact that I don't own anything in my story, except I guess the order I put the words in?**

**Anyways here it is hope you enjoy!**

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She tossed the ball high above her head then swung with all her might, bringing her racquet through the ball like a hammer. The ball flew from her strings bounced in the corner of the service box and flew right past the girl on the other side of the net. Ace!

" Game, set, match, Miss Takenouchi," said the umpire from his lofty position atop his officiating chair.

" Good Match Sor, 6-1, 6-0," said Lily Anne, one of Sora's teammates, as Sora walked off the court.

" Thanks!" replied Sora

" With that win we've got a complete sweep of Fussa High School, 5-0!"

" Nice! I think we're going to be really good this year."

" Yeah we are and you're going to win the National Tournament."

" I dunno about that, but I can hope."

" Come on Sora! You're one of the top girls in tennis around the Tokyo area and you know it."

It was true, since taking up tennis her freshman year Sora had blossomed into a very talented tennis player. She beat players who had been playing for longer than her, and even boasted a winning record against the best boys tennis player, at her school, Odaiba High School. Sora felt like she had a chance to get to Nationals and hold her own. She'd have to be on top of her game though.

" Good work girls! Solid wins from all of you! I hope I'll see that effort out of you in a few days against Fuchu! Well you girls get a good rest, I'll see you at practice tomorrow." Said the girls' coach, Kaori Furukawa.

" Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow Sor, have you finished your English paper?" asked Lily Anne.

" No, it isn't due till Tuesday right? I've still got tonight, Friday and the whole three weekend." Sora said picking up her racquets.

" Three day weekend? Oh yeah you seniors get to skip Monday! Lucky!"

" That's right you've still got one more year to go youngen!" Sora said rubbing her hand on the top of Lily's head.

" Alright, alright bye."

With that the two parted ways. Sora turned and walked towards her house holding her racquets in her left hand and her schoolbag on her shoulder. Sora had three of the same racquet just in case the frame or the strings broke. She shifted one over to her right hand and just looked at it. It felt natural, almost like an extension of her own arm. To her the racquet was like a work of art. A Babolat Aeropro Drive, she had fallen in love with it since she saw Rafael Nadal play with it in the Japan Open.

" _Man Nadal is hot! I wish I had a guy as muscular as him." _Sora thought to herself.

Sora walked on still thinking about Rafael Nadal and absently at the ground through the strings on her racquet. Then the next thing she knew she was getting up from the ground.

" _Ahh! My head." _

Sora put her hand to her head and looked up thinking she'd run into a pole. Stupid of her not to look where she was going. Instead she saw a guy in a soccer uniform, wearing goggles around his head, and what looked like bush of poofy, brown hair on top of it.

" Hey Sor, you should watch where you're going!" He said, with a grin on his face. He put out his hand to help her up.

" What are you talking about? You weren't looking where you were going either, Tai!" replied Sora taking Tai's hand.

" Yeah I guess not," said Tai scratching the back of his head. " Tell you what, I'll make it up to you. I just got a coupon for free pizza, wanna come?"

" Will any of your girlfriends be there?" Sora knew to ask this because it seemed like girls followed Tai like ants on a picnic. Just about every girl in school wanted to have Tai, the soccer team captain, on their hip. She was surprised there weren't any now.

" Well, I can't make any promises, but I'm not taking anyone but you."

" All right, but you'd better not invite any of them, some of them are so annoying."

" Deal."

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Tai and Sora sat in a booth at the window sipping sodas. It was nice to have Tai to herself for a while, usually Sora had to put up with one of Tai's nasty guy friends or dumb girl friends.

" How was soccer practice Tai?" asked Sora

" Pretty good I feel like we have a decent team this year," Answered Tai " You should come to our game tomorrow."

" Maybe after practice. Oh look the pizza's here!"

One of the servers dropped a large pizza on the table Tai and Sora were sitting at.

" I can't believe you talked me into getting taco pizza," said Tai " Taco stuff belongs in a taco not on a pizza."

" Oh come on Tai! Just have some more. It'll grow on you!" Said Sora handing Tai a slice of the pizza.

" Well it's better than Mom's cooking, I guess."

" Hey Tai! " said a female voice.

Tai looked around to see where it had come from. Then in the window he saw a cute looking girl waving at him in the window. Tai half-heartedly waved back. Sora glared at her, the girl scowled back then walked off.

" Thanks Sor! I didn't want to do deal with her."

" No problem! Who is she?"

" I dunno, one of those freshman who come to all my soccer games. They're all kind of annoying."

" It seems like a lot of girls come to your soccer games and watch you a lot more than the ball."

" Haha, you aren't jealous are you?"

Sora stiffened a bit at that question. Really she was pretty jealous that all the girls Tai hung out with, because she really liked Tai. But to Tai, she and he were just good friends. She didn't want to rock the boat of their relationship. She thought if she said what she really thought things would be awkward. So she said,

" No, just so long as none of them hurt you."

" Ha!" Tai laughed " Like anyone, especially a girl, could hurt me!'

Tai flexed his muscles.

" _Same old hot-headed Tai! "_ Thought Sora _" You'd think he'd have matured, but he's still the same as when we first went to the digital world."_

" Aaahh! Watch where you're pointing those guns Tai!"

Sora put up her hands pretending something might actually shoot out of Tai's arms. Sora had to admit Tai was no slouch in the muscle department. Tai did have some defined arms, but his defined legs were more prominent as he was a soccer player.

" Yeah, You know it!" Said Tai rolling up his sleeves and posing.

" Stop it Tai! People are looking!"

" That's okay, everyone wants a good look!"

Sora laughed.

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On the way back home Sora had to stare down at least five girls trying to get at Tai. Tai was nonchalant about it just waving and smiling.

" So why do you have so many racquets Sora?" Tai asked holding up one of Sora's racquets. Tai had insisted on not only walking Sora home, but also carrying her stuff.

" I break strings. Gotta have a spare or I'd have to forfeit the match."

" Yeah? I bet Yusuke hoped you'd break all three last week, when you beat him again. Funny how the best girl's tennis player can beat the best guy!"

" I guess I'm just that good!"

" Good thing I'm still better than you at soccer!"

" What do you mean still? I've always been better than you!"

" Where? In your dreams?" laughed Tai.

The two reached Sora's apartment and Tai handed Sora her stuff.

" Thanks for the pizza, and everything Tai."

" No problem, that's what friends are for!" he replied and walked off.

Sora watched Tai go. Tai was a good friend, but she wished they could be more than that.

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Sora lay on her bed thinking, mostly about Tai. She remembered when Tai had been interested in her. She remembered at Matt's Christmas concert a while back Tai had wanted to be with her. Back then Sora had still been interested in Matt. Matt and her had dated for a while after that. In the end however, it turned out the two had differing passions. Matt was too interested in music and Sora was more interested in sports. Sora would spend all her time on the soccer field, or the tennis court, and Matt would be writing songs or playing with his band. The two ended the relationship because they couldn't really connect that well. More and more Sora started to realize Tai might be the better boyfriend. Unfortunately for her when she did finally decide to give Tai some serious thought, he became a lot more popular with the girls. Every week it seemed Tai had a new girlfriend, and every night he had a date. Tonight had been the first time in a long time Sora had gotten Tai by himself. It seemed Tai was always more interested in some other girl.

" _Why can't I be that girl?"_ Sora thought to herself.

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**Well there it is!**

**Tell me what you thought, input (questions, comments, snide remarks, okay maybe no the last one) is always appreciated Also feel free to correct any errors in here, cuz there probably are some.**

**I have another chapter ready and will post t later with possible edits based on feedback from this.**

**(Btw I am totally BSing on Japanese high schools, if that bugs you tell me some real ones and I'll use them)**

**Thanks for reading**!


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello all! **

**Here's the second installment of this story hope you like! (And if you do tell me!)**

**Again I own nothing in this story **

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Hikari sat at the table working on a math problem. She looked up for a second to see what time it was. Almost 9 o'clock. She was starting to wish she hadn't waited till this late to start on this. She was having more trouble concentrating than normal, which was bad because she usually had trouble concentrating. Suddenly her weak concentration was distracted by the front of their apartment opening.

" Hi Taichi, back late as usual, I see," She said, " which girl was it tonight?"

" Oh just Sora." Answered Tai heading for the refrigerator.

" Really? I thought you were going out with Yumi."

" I am, it wasn't a date, Sora and I are just good friends." Tai mumbled with some sort of food between his teeth.

" Well I wouldn't be surprised, you switch girls so often, Tai. Are you ever going to get a steady girlfriend?"

`" Probably sometime," Replied Tai after swallowing, "I just have to find the right one. For now I can just sample the goods!"

Kari frowned at Tai.

" That's so shallow! I think that if you want to find the right girl you're looking in the wrong places. You can't base your relationships on looks forever you know."

" C'mon, Kari, I'm playing the odds. There must be at least one good looking girl that's right for me."

" Those girls don't really care about you, they just want you for their own selfish ends. You should go out with Sora, I think she really cares about you Tai."

" Sora? That'd be weird. She's like…like my sister! We're just friends."

" She'd be better than those floozies you usually hang out with."

" Awww, lay off! I'm having a lot of fun with this!"

" Trust me Tai, a steady relationship is way better, than dating whoever, whenever. Takeru used to do that, but now that we're together he said he's never been happier. You should take a cue from him."

Kari pointed her pencil in Tai's direction. Tai just gave her one of his trademark smiles.

" I'll be a one girl man when the time is right. You worry too much sis'."

Tai walked off to his room with an armload of snacks. Hikari sighed to herself. She had a feeling Tai's behavior would lead to trouble, but she wasn't sure what it would be.

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Sora's Friday morning began like most, hitting her alarm clock, stumbling out of bed, taking a shower, then preparing for her day. She always paid special attention to her appearance in the hopes Tai would notice her. She looked through her closet for a good skirt. She knew Tai like girls in skirts. She picked up one.

" _Hmm, no too short." _

Tai did like them short, but Tai was a bit of a perv and Sora didn't want to look like a slut. Sora finally decided on one, put it on with a pink halter top.

" _Is Tai gonna notice?"_

She looked in her mirror hopefully. After putting on a little makeup and messing with her red hair, she grabbed a duffel with her tennis stuff in it and left out the door.

At School, Sora went to her American Literature Class. She spotted her best friend, Mimi, in the back and sat next to her.

" Hey Sor! How are you?" Asked Mimi.

" A little tired I didn't get to my homework till late last night." Sora answered.

" Really what were you doing?"

" Oh, Tai took me out for dinner."

" Oooohh, Tai?" Said Mimi, elbowing Sora.

" It's not like that," Sora said laughing, " Tai and I are just friends."

" All right girl," Said Mimi with a teasing tone to her voice, " Whatever you say."

" Oh stop it, Mimi!" Sora lightly pushed Mimi.

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RRRIIIINNNGGG!

Sora hated how the bell sounded but it did mean she was done with class. She closed her book and stuffed it into her school bag. This was her last real class, after this she just had lunch, some study halls, and art. She walked into the lunchroom and spotted the table where her friends usually sat. There was Jyou "Joe", Koushiro "Izzy", Yamato "Matt", and Mimi. As she sat down she was greeted with the usual "hi's" from everyone at the table.

"_Where's Tai?" _Sora wondered to herself. Sora looked around and had her question unpleasantly answered by a table of laughing girls with Tai among them. Sora furrowed her eyebrows and hit her fist against the table.

Her friends at the table noticed and turned to see what Sora was looking at.

" What's the matter, Sora?" asked Joe peering from his biochemistry book.

" Oh uh…" Sora stammered realizing she shouldn't have drawn attention to herself. " It's just uh… nothing."

" All right if you say so." Said Mimi.

Sora looked down at the table. It always annoyed her when Tai sat with his fangirls' table instead of at their table. He was starting to do that more lately.

" Is everyone coming to Matt and I's gig tonight?" Mimi asked. She and Matt had formed a little band called "Mphasis" (pronounced emphasis), which featured the two of them, with members of Matt's other band The Teenage Wolves. Matt and Mimi had hooked up not long after Sora and Matt broke up. The two seemed to really connect over music. Mimi played the guitar and piano, Matt played guitar and harmonica, and they both sang. It didn't take long for them to realize how much they liked to play together. They'd been doing that ever since.

" Yeah we're coming" Said Joe and Izzy.

" I'll try and come after practice. Where are you guys playing again?" Sora asked.

" The Black Magic Lounge," Answered Matt, " I'll make you directions if you want."

" No, I think I know where it is." Said Sora.

" Cool!" exclaimed Mimi, " Hey does anyone know if Tai is coming?"

Everyone at the table shrugged or shook their heads.

" Someone should ask," Mimi thought aloud " Sora! You and Tai are good friends right? Go over there and ask him!"

" But uh…" Sora tried to think of a reason she to get her out of doing this.

" Go!" Mimi said pushing Sora from her seat.

" Oh all right!" said Sora glaring at Mimi. Mimi just gave her a big grin and waved. Sora groaned.

Sora approached the table Tai was sitting at with malicious looks and suspicious whispers from the girls surrounding Tai. Gosh, she hated to deal with these girls. One on one she could usually scare them away, but they were pretty vicious as a group. Fortunately Tai noticed her and walked up to go talk to her.

" Hey Sora!" He said.

" Hi, I wanted to ask you something." Sora suddenly realized she probably shouldn't have started the conversation like that in this audience.

" Tai is she asking you out?" one of the Tai's fangirls at the table yelled.

" I think she is!" another one shouted.

" Aw hell no!" said the one behind her.

Soon all of the girl's at Tai's table were in a frenzy. They got up and looked like they were going to kill Sora. Sora cautiously backed away. Some of the girls picked up food and started throwing it at her.

" Hey stop it you guys." Tai ordered in vain.

" Go back where you came from bitch!" one of them yelled " Yeah! Tai doesn't want you!"

More of them hurled insults and food at Sora. She ran to avoid both. The girls chased Sora out of the lunchroom.

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Sora sat by herself in the supply closet. She was there to hide from those awful girls. She was very upset. She had a tear running down her cheek, but she was mad more than angry right now.

" _Stupid girls! Stupid Tai! Why did I have to go over there?!" _She seethed to herself. _" And why does Tai have all those dumb girls anyway?"_

She heard the door open and squinted at the light. There was a feminine silhouette in the light.

" There you are Sora!" Said the figure. " I saw what happened, I'm so sorry Sora! I shouldn't have asked you to go over there!"

Sora recognized the voice of Mimi. Mimi sat down next to Sora.

" It's okay, it's not your fault it's Tai and his damn fanclub! I effing hate having to deal with them." Said Sora angrily.

" Yeah, I don't know why Tai hangs out with them. They're all just stuck-up wannabe skanks! Matt's going to go talk to Tai."

Mimi put her arm around Sora. Sora's mouth formed into a weak smile. At least she had good friends.

"C'mon let's go to class." Said Mimi helping Sora up.

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Sora was glad to be at tennis practice where she could forget about the events of the day for a while. There was something therapeutic about beating the dust off the fuzzy yellow tennis ball.

" Nice shot!" said Lilly Anne. " You're hitting the ball really hard today!"

" Yeah I guess so," Sora said shrugging her shoulders.

" Is something bugging you?" asked Lily Anne.

" Oh yeah… but it's nothing."

" Is it about a guy?" Lily pried " I'm a little miffed at guys right now, Ray canceled on me for this weekend. Is there something wrong with me?"

Lily looked down examining herself. Lily was a slender black-haired girl who had a nice looking face, which was also fairly slender. She was pretty skinny though, some guys accused her of being a little flat but she had a sweet personality. Sora thought it was dumb for guys not to want to go out with her just because she was slim.

" No, you're fine," Sora reassured, " Guys are just stupid sometimes."

Sora thought of Tai. He could be such an idiot sometimes. Though he usually rushed into things without thinking. In spite of that she wanted Tai things to be alright between them She wanted things to go back to normal for her and Tai, He would have to apologize though.

" Okay girls bring it in here!" said the coach. " Alright get a good rest this weekend, we'll be playing some tough teams this week and I want us to be prepared!"

The girls started to leave and talk about their plans for the weekend.

" One more thing!" interjected the coach. " I heard were going to have a new girl come to our school from America. She plays tennis, and I hear she was the regional champion over there. But we'll see how things work out. Have a good weekend everyone!"

" Hmmm that's interesting." Said Sora thinking aloud.

" Yeah, but don't worry I'm sure she's not better than you!" said Lily.

" I dunno Lily, I hear those players from America are pretty good… Well in any case I'll bet she'll be a good addition to the team."

" Yeah!" agreed Lily " Well I'll see you later!"

Lily waved goodbye. Sora checked her watch, 5:30. Still enough time to change, eat and get to Matt and Mimi's show. She walked toward her house, the day's events replaying in her mind.

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**Another chapter completed!**

**This is getting to be kind of fun**

**Tell me what you thought, it'll help both you and me, cuz I'll know what to or not do to make this a better story**

**Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Salutations!**

**Here it is Ch. 3 in all it's glory!**

**Hope You like**

**I don't own anything, don't sue me**

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Sora dried off her wet hair, and wrapped a towel around her to go from the bathroom to her room. She picked out a simple jeans and T-shirt combination and put one of her hats on so she wouldn't have to do anything with her hair. She took her purse and headed out the door for Matt and Mimi's concert. She hoped it would relieve some of the stress she had had that day.

Sora walked out of her apartment to look for her car. It should be in her usual spot. She looked but there was a car sitting right in front of it. The car, a Nissan Skyline GT-R R-35 looked familiar, but it couldn't be… Sora walked closer to it and it was who she thought it was.

Tai and his poofy hair emerged from the car. Sora was going to be angry at him but she noticed he had yellow roses in his right hand and decided to give him a chance.

" Hey Sora, I'm real sorry about what happened at lunch today." Said Tai offering her the flowers. " So I got you these and some apology cookies."

Sora took the flowers and cookies. Yellow roses and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, her favorite.

" Matt told me what you were going to ask me earlier. So I decided I'd take you to Him and Mimi's gig in my car. It'll be a lot better than that beater you usually drive. That is if you would want to…"

Tai's eyes looked into Sora's own. She was still kind of mad at Tai, for ditching their group to hang out with his fangirls, who were always mean to her. She generally could put up with them but today was about the last straw for her. Sora furrowed her eyebrows at Tai.

" What's a few rain drops between friends right?" Said Tai hopefully.

That was the line Tai always used when he was trying to apologize to Sora, ever since the hairpin incident. This sort of thing did happen on an almost regular basis. Tai would do something stupid and have to apologize to her. That's probably why he knew what Sora's favorite flowers and cookies were, he'd had to use them on various occasions.

"All right Taichi," Sora said, It was hard for her to resist his big chocolate colored brown eyes, but she wasn't about to simply let him off the hook, " two conditions: one, you stop hanging out with your stupid female fan-club,"

Tai tensed up, inhaling deeply through his teeth. He had suspected this was coming, though he hoped it wouldn't. He really liked all the attention he got from the girls. Finally…

" Oh, ok! I can still have a girlfriend right?"

" Fine, as long as she's not a bitch." Sora reluctantly conceded.

" Kay what's the second thing?" Tai asked nervously.

" I get to pick the music on the way to the concert!"

Tai laughed relieved.

" Okay, but we'd better not listen to anything to girly!" he said running over to get the passenger door for Sora.

" Nope, I'll have none of that Taichi Kamiya! We are listening to whatever I want."

Tai groaned.

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Tai's driving usually scared most girls, especially Mimi. Sora remembered when Tai drove Mimi to her birthday party and she could hear her high-pitched scream from blocks away. Like his personality Tai's driving was wild and reckless. Sora actually liked riding with Tai it was exhilarating. Tai had never gotten in an accident, he was a good driver, he just had a lot of traffic tickets. The two of them rolled down the street at about 80 miles an hour listening to " Dirty Little Secret" by the All American Rejects. It was like riding a roller coaster. Tai checked the lane next to him, seeing no one, hit his parking brake, turned the wheel, and drifted through a left turn. He seamlessly pushed the brake back down and shifted into gear. Sora put up her arms laughing as the engine roared. Her hair fluttered in the wind from the open window.

Finally Tai hit some traffic and had to slow down.

" Hmmm" Sora scrolled through her ipod thoughtfully. Satisfied she pressed the center button.

" Oh no, not this song!" Tai exclaimed.

" What?! I love this song! You don't like it?" asked Sora.

" Oh yeah I love boy bands! And LMNT is like the cream of that crop!" Tai said sarcastically.

" I think

You're fine

You really blow my mind

Maybe

Someday

You and me can run away

I just want you to know

I wanna be your Romeo

Hey Juliet!" blared from the speakers.

" Unnnhhh!" Tai groaned, " It's bad enough we're stuck in traffic but we're listening to this too? Gaaahhh!"

Sora just ignored him, singing along and swaying back and forth.

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After weaving their way through traffic, Tai and his passenger were at the Black Magic Lounge. Tai pulled up to the curb, screeched to a halt, and the two got out.

" Wow I almost forgot how much fun it is driving with you, Tai!' Said Sora.

" I bet Mimi hasn't either!" Tai laughed.

" Haha, definitely not!" agreed Sora.

The Black magic lounge was a dimly lit open area, which had somewhat the appearance of a large garage. The floor was smooth cement and the ceiling unfinished. Also it was dimly lit and had various occultish decorations, giving the place a very mystical feel. A light fog hung in the hair and lightly floated over the ground. Mphasis was already onstage playing. Tai and Sora scanned the room until they saw Joe and Izzy waving to them near the stage. With them were Kari and her friends: Davis, Yolei, Ken, and T.K.

" Hi guys what did I miss?" Said Tai.

" Only two songs, but you missed the opening number it was pretty good," Answered Joe. " You're only with one girl tonight?"

" No, Tai promised me he's not going to be with all those bimbos anymore!" Said Sora triumphantly.

" Good for you Tai!" Said Kari.

" Yeah yeah…" Said Tai not convinced this would be such a good thing " I'm gonna go get something to drink, anyone want anything?"

" I'll have a virgin mai tai, if they have them." Said Yolei.

" Ooohh I'll have a strawberry smoothie!" said Kari

" I could use some ice water." said Izzy.

" Whoa, whoa slow down everyone," said Tai, " I can only carry so many drinks at once! You want anything Sora?"

" Just get me something with chocolate in it I'm craving!" answered Sora.

" All right, anyone else?" Said Tai daring anyone to ask for something, " Good, I'll be right back."

At the counter Tai put in all the orders and decided to get Sora a mint dark chocolate shake. He sat and waited with his back to the counter watching Matt and Mimi onstage. Going with the theme of the venue they were wearing black, grey and white. They looked pretty good up there. Though Mimi may have gone a little overboard with the black mascara, she looked a little creepy but the prettiness of her eyes made up for it. Tai's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a tap on the shoulder. Tai turned to see who it was.

" Hey handsome," Said a cute brown haired girl seductively.

"Hey beautiful," said Tai playing along.

" You're Tai Kamiya right? Of the Odaiba Soccer Team?" inquired the girl.

" The one and only," replied Tai turning on his stool toward the girl, " And who might you be?"

" I'm Lana, I've been to every one of your game this soccer games season." She said, " You were amazing in that game against Mitaka!"

" Yeah three goals in one game, hat trick!" said Tai impressed with himself.

" Hey want to see something cool?" asked Lana, getting up and grabbing Tai's hand.

" Sure," said Tai following her.

The audience clapped as emphasis finished another song. Sora and her group cheered the loudest. Mostly because Jun was with them.

" Thank you very much," Said Matt, putting his hand over the guitar to quiet the strings. " How many Disney fans do we have out there?"

There were a few shouts and raised hands.

" Well I don't usually do this, but my girlfriend," Matt motioned over to Mimi at the piano, who grinned and waved, " talked me into this one. This is from 'Anastasia' I believe."

With that the lights dimmed leaving a single spotlight on Mimi who went into the starting piano line for the song. She sang into the microphone:

" We were strangers, starting out on a journey

Never dreaming, what we'd have to go through

Now here we are, and I'm suddenly standing

At the beginning with yooouuu,"

Another spotlight came on with Matt at the center and he began to strum his guitar and sing,

" No one told me I was going to find you

Unexpected what you did to my heart

When I lost hope you were there to remind me

This is the staaarrrt,"

Slowly the whole stage was illuminated in whites and blues revealing the whole band. Together Matt and Mimi sang,

" And Life is a road and I want to keep going

Love is a river I want to keep flowing

Life is a road now and forever

A Wonderful journey,"

People had their lighters out and swayed to the music. Sora swayed along with them and quietly sang to herself. She closed her eyes and thought about love, and of course Tai. She thought of the journeys and experiences they had shared together. The thoughts and memories made goose bumps run up and down her arms. She opened her eyes and looked around to see where Tai was, but he was nowhere to be found.

" _He must still be getting drinks," _Thought Sora.

The song ended with cheers and clapping from the audience. Matt switched guitars.

" Now was that so bad was it Matty?" Mimi asked Matt through the PA.

" No," He replied, " That was actually pretty nice, don't you think?"

The audience cheered some more, and there were a few shouts of, " You're hot Matt!"

Matt smiled and started the introduction to another song.

" Hey Tai's taking an awful long time with those drinks, don't you think?" complained Yolei.

" Yeah I'm pretty sure that he has ADD. He gets distracted so easily I'll go check on him." Said Kari, reluctantly leaving her spot near the stage.

Kari weeded her way through the dimly lit area to the counter. There were everyone's drinks on the counter but no Tai. Kari sensed something was wrong. Her "sister sense" if she had one was tingling. She looked around some more and eventually found herself in a dark hallway where the bathrooms were. Then she spotted Tai in one of the darker corners. As she got closer Kari noticed what looked like a pair of arms wrapped around Tai.

" _He had better not be doing what I think he's doing" _Kari thought to herself.

Kari was close enough now to confirm her suspicions, he was making out with some slut by the bathrooms.

" Taichi, Kamiya!" Kari shouted pulling him out of his entanglement. " What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

" Aaahhh!" yelled Tai. He turned to see who had interrupted him. He was about to deck whoever it was, but then saw it was his sister Kari tapping her foot on the ground looking very disappointed. Tai groaned and his eyes dropped to the floor.

" Hey, what's going on!?" Lana said angrily from behind Tai.

" If you know what's good for you you'll leave and never come back!" Kari said to her pointing out the door.

Lana scowled, gave Kari the finger and walked away.

" Now what in the hell do you think you were doing!?" Kari yelled at Tai, " You promised Sora!"

" Come on, Kari! I guess I sorta messed up." Tai said apologetically, " Don't tell Sora please!"

" I think she deserves to know." Kari said leaving.

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" Uuuurrrggghhh!" Sora screamed outwardly and inwardly.

Why did she give that loser so many chances? How could he be the perfect guy sometimes and a total idiot the other times? Tai could be so sweet sometimes. He was funny athletic, good-looking, and had been a great friend over the years. But in spite of that he always seemed to do something dumb.

After hearing from Kari what Tai had done she stormed out of the lounge in a rage. Now she was fuming outside kicking whatever debris was at her feet. She saw Tai come out of the lounge and turned the other way.

" I know your mad at me," sighed Tai, " But just hear me out. I'm really sorry; I shouldn't encourage those girls if they're going to hurt you, like they did at lunch. But it's really hard for me."

Tai took a few steps closer.

" You remember the Homecoming dance last year?" Tai asked, " Well the reason I didn't go was because I got rejected by four girls to go with me. I just spent the night brooding at home. Well now that I have so many girls who want me, I guess it's hard for me to say no. I've never had this much attention from girls before. I know that's no excuse…"

Sora sighed. Why did she have such a weakness for Tai? Even with everything Tai had done she still wanted to forgive him. She turned around.

" Tai, I want to be your friend I really do, but," She said " You have to stop being with those fangirls all the time! They're hurting us, your friends, and they're just going to hurt you Tai!"

" Yeah, I know you're right," Tai admitted " And I'll try harder I really will. You guys are important to me."

" Okay Tai, but I'm can't keep giving you second chances forever." Said Sora firmly

" You won't need to!" Tai said with a smile.

Sora hoped he was right.

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**Another Chapter in the books!**

**The songs I used are " Juliet" by LMNT and " At The Beginning" from "Anastasia" (yeah kinda corny but I sorta like them)**

**Please review and tell me what you thought!**

**I may not be able to update for a bit because I have some tennis stuff going on...**


	4. Chapter 4

**Greetings all!**

**I thought it would take me longer to update I thought I would make it to the state tennis tournament but unfortunately I narrowly missed qualifying for it. F-you Jesuit! (Sorry still a little bitter, those guys stole that match from us!)**

**Well enough of my ranting, there's kind of a lengthy tennis sequence in this chapter so I thought I'd include a quick guide to how tennis is played. (For those who already know you're awesome!)**

**There are four ways you can score a point in tennis:**

**1. Your opponent can hit a ball in the net**

**2. Your opponent can hit the ball outside the court lines**

**3. You can hit the ball past your opponent**

**4. Your opponent double faults**

**Every tennis point in a match starts with a serve, hitting the ball into the service box. If you miss your first serve you get a second try or second serve. If you miss this you double fault and lose the point.**

**One person serves for an entire game, then after the game is over the other person serves. **

**6 games constitute a set and you need 2 sets to win a match. In a set you have to win by two, so if the game score is 5-5 you would need to win 7-5. If the score is tied at 6-6 the players play a tiebreak. In a tiebreak it is first to seven points, win by two, so it could go on indefinitely. Whoever wins the tiebreak wins the set 7-6.**

**Groundstrokes are hitting the ball usually from the baseline, off a bounce**

**Volleys are hitting the ball out of the air**

**K, hopefully that'll be enough! For more info check out: .org/wiki/Tennis **

**Enjoy!**

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It had been a week since Tai had promised Sora not to be so promiscuous. He was still slipping every now and then but he was making progress. His digi-destined friends helped keep him accountable, especially Sora. She smiled as Tai sat down with the rest of the gang. He hadn't sat with those awful girls the entire week.

" Uuuhhh!" Tai groaned as he sat down.

" What's the matter Tai?" asked Matt.

" I'm pretty sure I just failed my math test," replied Tai, " If I don't get good enough grades in that class I can't play soccer!"

" Didn't the study session we did last night facilitate you at all?" inquired Izzy, feeling as though he'd failed Tai.

" No…" said Tai, " I guess I'm just not that used to studying anymore, usually I could get some girl to leave her paper uncovered and I'd copy the answers. They've been pretty cold to me now that I'm trying to avoid them."

" That's awful Tai," interjected Joe, " It's probably a good thing they don't give you the answers anymore, you're going to need to learn to study sometime."

" Yeah, I know…" sighed Tai.

" Would you want me to lend you aid again this weekend?" asked Izzy.

" I dunno Izz," thought Tai, " You're like in Calculus five billion or something and I'm in algebra. I don't always understand everything you say. It's not your fault or anything I'm just a little math impaired."

" Hey I could try and help you," said Sora, " I took that class last year and I could try and explain things better. No offense Izzy."

" None taken," said Izzy " I realize proficiency in an area doesn't make you a great teacher."

" So what do you say Tai?" asked Sora. She really hoped he would say yes.

" Sure, " said Tai, " Come over about 2'o clock on Saturday?"

" Okay, I'd better not have to wake you up though!" said Sora jokingly.

" That happens one time!" Tai shook his head, " I'm usually up by …" Tai had to think for a minute, "1:30!"

Everyone in the group laughed. Sora shouted a "yes!" in her head. She had a study date with Tai.

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Sora walked to tennis practice with a spring in her step. She was excited for the weekend, one event in particular, and the new girl from America was supposed to be here today. Upon reaching the courts she looked around for anyone who she didn't know. Then she spotted a tall blonde girl walking towards the courts. She was well built and shapely, and wore quite a bit of make-up. She reminded Sora a bit of Maria Sharapova. She wore a matching tank top and shirt, which perfectly matched her shoes and visor on her head. On her back she wore a large Prince Bag, which looked like it held at least six racquets. Sora went up to greet her.

" Hi!" Sora said extending her hand for a handshake, " I'm Sora, are you the new girl from America?"

" Yeah, " the girl said coldly walking past and ignoring Sora's hand.

Sora walked alongside her.

" Where'd you get your outfit?" Sora asked, " It matches really well."

" I'm sponsored," said the girl. She raised an eyebrow as she looked at Sora's own outfit. " And it looks like you're not" She said condescendingly.

Sora frowned at looked at her own outfit. It was a pretty simple green t-short and white shorts combination, but she did notice the brands didn't match the way the American girl's did. Sora looked up to defend her outfit but the American girl had already left.

" _Well that could've gone better" _Sora thought to herself.

She circled up with the rest of the girls around their coach.

" This is the new girl I was telling you about last week, from America. Her name is Megan Morrison." Said the coach with the American girl next to her. " So I heard you were quite the tennis player where you're from."

" Yeah," said Meg " I was the No.1 player in California!"

" Excellent!" said the coach, " Now to determine your place on the team I'm going to do something a little different since I don't know exactly how good you are. I'll let you challenge anyone on the team and you can have her spot on the team if you beat her. But if you lose you'll go to the bottom on our team ladder. I'll give you to the end of next week to decide who you want to play."

" Oh you don't have to do that. I know who I want to challenge." Megan said confidently. " Who's the bet player on the team?"

" Well that'd be Sora Takenouchi. But are you sure that…"

Megan cut the coach off mid-sentence. " Of course I'm sure. Let's play right now!"

" All right," said the coach, " You too will be on court five. Have a good match."

Sora went to grab some water and her extra racquet. She was beginning to think she wasn't going to like this new girl. She was more arrogant than Tai, and far less friendly. Sora walked onto the court and saw Megan pulling out at least five White Prince O3 racquets from her bag. She would tap the strings on each evaluating the tension. She found one that satisfied her and walked onto the court.

_" Spoiled Brat!" _Sora thought to herself.

As the two warmed up they scouted each other out. Megan had powerful ground strokes off both wings and moved solidly. Sora wasn't as impressed with her volleys, but she did have a very fast serve that consistently hit the corners of the service box. As for Sora, she herself was solid from all parts of the court. She wasn't overwhelming in any one category, but didn't have any real weaknesses.

Sora spun her racquet to decide who got to choose to serve or receive. Megan called down. The racquet fell and Sora saw the Babolat symbol on the bottom of her racquet was upside down. Megan chose to serve first. The first game ended with Sora not being able to return any of Megan's fast accurate serves, though by the end of the game she could at least get her racquet on it. Now it was Sora's turn to serve. Sora was able to keep Megan on her toes with her first serve. However, when she missed one and had to hit a weaker second serve, Megan was able to tee off on it. Sora ended up losing that game too. Before she knew it Sora had lost the first set 6-2.

Sora sat down on the bench before the beginning of the next set. She knew she was going to need to make some adjustments to stay in this match. Megan's groundstrokes were coming hard and fast making it hard for Sora to dictate play. Also Megan didn't hit many short balls not allowing Sora to use her volleys. Megan's serve would be another obstacle as Sora had yet to get enough serve returns in the court to make a dent in Megan's service games. Sora finally decided on a strategy and got off of the bench to return serve.

Instead of trying to move the ball around the court by hitting through the ball, Sora just sliced back Megan's serves and groundstrokes. This gave Sora more time to recover after each shot, and kept the ball low. Sora had noticed during the first set Megan's balls were coming very low over the net, now that the balls were coming lower she either hit them into the net or out. Sora jumped out to an early lead in the second set. Sora's new strategy made Megan do just what Sora had wanted; Megan started to take some pace off her strokes. Now Sora was starting to get short balls in her court. When they came Sora would pound an approach shot into one of the corners on the court and approach the net. Megan would try and hit it hard back at her but she would either miss or give Sora an easy volley to the open court. Sora took the second set 6-1.

It all came down to a third set. Neither player gave an inch. Megan was careful to keep her balls deep and Sora kept her shots low over the net. The two were neck and neck; each point was a long battle of attrition to see who would be the first to make a mistake.

Eventually the two girls tied at 6 games each. It was time for a tiebreak. It would be the first to seven points with the two alternating serves every two serves after the first serve. Megan started the tiebreak off with an ace up the service box. Sora answered with tough first serves, one an ace and the other set up an easy put away at the net. Finally Sora had a match point up 6-5. Megan missed her first serve in the net, then Sora did something unexpected. She moved from her return position at the net and didn't stop till she was nearly on top of the service line. Unnerved by this move Megan served her second serve with all her might. Sora dodged the serve and triumphantly shouted

" Out!" as the ball flew past her. Megan angrily slammed her racquet on the ground.

" This isn't over Takenouchi!" Said Megan grudgingly shaking Sora's hand at the net, " I'll work my way up the ladder and when we play again it won't even be close."

" Bring it!" Sora retorted.

Sora picked up her stuff and turned to leave. She unexpectedly saw her teammates liking the fence cheering. Sora got out off the court and went to Lily Anne.

" When did you guys start watching?" Sora asked her.

" Practice has been over for a while now," said Lily " You've been playing for more than 2 ½ hours!"

" Oh I guess I didn't notice," said Sora. She was noticing how sore she was now that the adrenaline was wearing off. " That was an intense match."

" Yeah it was!" agreed Lily " I saw most of the last set, you really pulled it out! That Morrison girl did not seem happy though."

" No, I'm really glad I beat her though, she really pisses me off!"

" I almost feel sorry for her having to work her way up from the bottom of the ladder now!"

" I don't!" she deserves it for being such a bitch."

" Yeah, you're probably right… Are we still going to hit together on Sunday?"

" For sure! I'll see you then!"

With that Sora left to go home for a bath and preparing for Saturday.

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**Well let me know how that was, especially the tennis sequence. (Sorry if it was confusing, I know tennis is sort of a weird British sport, I'll tweak how I write those based on your feedback)**

**Thanks for reading! (Review plz!)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Here it is another chapter!**

**Yay over the 10,000 word mark**

**A big thanks for all who cared to review, hopefully more of you will (**nudge, nudge**)**

**Super big thanks to recurring reviewers, Justicez, Darkened-Storm! You guys rock hard core!**

**I claim ownership for nothing in here**

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Sora stood at the door of the Kamiya apartment. She checked the time on her cell phone, 2:01. She was right about on time. She had to admit she was a little nervous about this, but she swallowed and knocked on the door. She heard footsteps approaching the door, and the door opened. A face poked out from the gap between the door and the doorpost.

" Oh, hi Sora," Said Kari opening the door to let her in, " What are you doing here?"

" Tai and I are going to study together." Answered Sora.

" Oh good he really needs it!" said Kari.

" Where is he?" asked Sora.

" Uuuhhh, I think he's still asleep." Kari said walking towards Tai's room. There was Tai in bed still sleeping, " Tai get up!"

Tai didn't move.

" Looks like you'll have to get him up." Kari said to Sora.

Sora walked into the room and bumped into one of many soccer balls on the floor. Up onto Tai's bed. The ball bounced lightly on top of the blankets covering Tai. In response, he simply groaned and rolled over. Annoyed but undeterred, Sora moved another soccer ball in front of her feet. This time she pulled back her leg a good distance and whacked the soccer at Tai. It his him square in the back of the head.

" Aaahhh!" said Tai, quickly sitting up, "What's the big idea?! Oh Sora…"

" Yes Tai it's me. We were supposed to STUDY TOGETHER?"

" Oh right…. What time is it?" Tai asked rubbing the back of his head

" Time for you to get a watch!" joked Sora "It's about ten after two."

" I guess we should study huh?"

Tai nonchalantly got out of bed. What he didn't realize was that he was only wearing boxers. Sora noticed though.

" Uhh Tai…" she said averting her eyes

" Huh?"

Tai looked around confused then spotted the Xbox boxers he was wearing.

" Hahaha!" laughed Tai, " what don't you like these?"

Tai snapped the elastic band on the side of his boxers.

" I'm going out here." Said Sora covering her eyes and pointing out the door.

" Don't you want a piece of this?" said Tai flexing as many muscles as he could.

Sora laughed.

"I'll be outside in the kitchen if you need me." Sora said walking out the door of Tai's room.

" You'll be back!" Tai shouted as Sora closed the door.

Sora walked into the kitchen where Kari was making a sandwich.

" Hey Sora, it's great to have you over at the house again." Kari said to Sora. " It seems like it's been so long since you've been over."

" Yeah, I guess it's been awhile…" Sora said, " The last time I was over here must've been, last summer at Tai's birthday party."

" Tai's been a little distracted since then," commented Kari. " I'm glad you got Tai away from his loser girlfriends."

" Yeah me too!" Said Sora looking around the Kamiya apartment " Hmm this place is the same as I remember it. Even the cracks in the wall."

" Haha yeah, we still haven't bothered to fix those, Tai was supposed to, years ago!" said Kari.

" I probably should have too, I was kicking the soccer ball around with him too." Said Sora.

" Why were you playing soccer inside?" asked Kari laughing.

" I don't exactly remember but I think Tai didn't want to walk all the way to the park!"

" Well Tai must've covered for you cause, when we got back he said he was the only one kicking the ball around."

Sora smiled to herself remembering the carefree days when her and Tai would hang out all the time, even when Matt and her were dating. They would play soccer and run around getting in to trouble. Well Tai would always get into trouble but he would usually keep Sora from getting into trouble. Sora hoped her and Tai would be able to get back to doing that soon.

Tai came out of his room fully clothed this time.

" All right I'm ready to go!" said Tai math book in hand.

" Okay Tai, what are you working on right now in your class?" asked Sora sitting down next to Tai.

" Um…. I don't really know, " Tai said flipping through the pages in his math book.

" Oh dear," Sora sighed " Well what was the last thing you remember covering?"

" Mmmm… this here I think," Tai said pointing to a page near the beginning of the book.

Sora groaned.

" I guess we have a lot of work to do…" Sora said opening her own math book.

The two spent about an hour going over math concepts and equations. Tai was a fast learner. Tai wasn't dumb he was just lazy. Now with Sora there making him actually work Tai was actually learning his math.

Sora watched Tai reading his textbook and writing down numbers. Sora knew she shouldn't stare but she couldn't look away from Tai's face. Tai looked up at her once and she blushed. Tai didn't really notice that she was staring, same old dense Tai.

After the hour they spent studying Tai started to get distracted. Sora tried to fight him for a while but eventually gave up.

" So this gay guy is totally hitting on me," Tai said continuing a story. " And I'm like ' thanks but no thanks one hundred percent straight here!' any way that was a really weird situation."

" Yeah I remember one of my best friends in middle school was lesbian. Then I saw her again in high school with her girlfriend," commented Sora, " She told me that she 'liked' me when we were friends. That was real awkward."

" Oh, yeah what was her name?" asked Tai.

" I think it was Ana, or something I don't remember now." Answered Sora.

" Blonde hair?" Sora nodded, " Yeah I remember I thought she was hot. Too bad she turned out lesbian."

" Taichi Kamiya! Is that all you think about?" Sora smacked him on the shoulder.

" Oww!" exclaimed Tai, " No there's other things!"

" Well it's been hard to tell that recently."

" Yeah, yeah well there are other things!"

" Well, what do you look for in a girl?" questioned Sora not really believing Tai would come up with anything worthwhile.

" Hmmm," Tai tapped his pencil on his right temple. " Well hot obviously!"

" _Oh good gosh Tai!" _Sora shouted in her head.

" I guess I like lighter colored hair, blonde or red, not black or brown as much."

Sora glanced at her own hair which she was twirling between her fingers.

" She'd probably have to be athletic, but I think what would be really important that she'd love me in spite of all the dumb stuff I sometimes do."

" You mean always do!" joked Sora.

" Hey hey!"

" No, no. I'm just kidding." said Sora, " Though you do do a lot of things without thinking Tai. But that's good Tai. You should want someone who doesn't just care about your appearance cares about the real you."

Sora wanted to add "like me" to the end of what she said but she just couldn't. She wasn't sure what would happen. Though she felt like she fit right into Tai's description, why didn't he see what was right in front of him?

" Yeah I suppose…" Tai replied nervously the way guys do when they have to talk about anything deep, especially with a girl.

The two sat in silence for a little bit. Then Tai asked,

" So what would you look for in a guy?"

" Hmmm…"

Should she tell hi what she really thought? Sora decided she would at the risk of exposing herself.

" Well It would be a good plus if he was good looking." Said Sora

" Heh, and you say I'm bad!" interjected Tai.

" Hey I didn't say it was a requirement." Countered Sora

" Ok fine, what else?"

" I would like a guy who was athletic, and played a sport I did. I don't really care about hair color that much. Despite how much it might annoy me I'd like if he was kinda headstrong and impulsive. But even if he did mess up he would know my favorite things to apoloigize with…" Sora tried off as she was speaking and she looked down.

She finally looked up to see Tai looking at her thoughtfully. Sora looked deep into his eyes trying to see what he was thinking. She wondered if he understood what she felt for him.

Suddenly their silent straing was interrupted by the tune of The Offspring's " Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)" coming from Tai's Iphone. Davis was calling. Tai quickly answered it.

" Hey Davis what's up? Oh ,no I'm at home studying with Sora. Today? Really? K, tell coach I'll be right down there." Tai hung up.

" Sorry Sor, I gotta go. Apparently there's weekend soccer practice this week." Said Tai gathering up his soccer things. " You can hang out here if you want bu I won't be back for a few hours. Thanks for coming over! Bye!"

With that Tai walked out the door. Sora's heart sunk a bit because what could have been a big turning point in her and Tai's relationship had been interrupted. Maybe Tai, would finally return her feelings. But on the other hand she might have made their friendship really awkward. So there was a bit of relief inside Sora as well.

" Do you like him?" said a voice on the other side of the couch, interrupting Sora's train of thought.

Sora looked to see who the voice belonged to and saw Kari's head pop over the couch cushions.

" Uh how long have you been sitting there?" asked Sora raising an eyebrow.

" Since you guys started working." Answered Kari with a sly smile.

" Oh…"

" So do you?" asked Kari again.

" Well…" said Sora looking off into the distance, hands clasped between her thighs

" It's cool if you do." Encouraged Kari, " You'd be a vast improvements on those idiots my brother usually dates."

" You think?" asked Sora " Okay, I guess I do sorta like him, but you cannot tell anyone! Especially not Mimi! "

" Haha, alright! My lips are sealed," said Kari making a zipper motion over her lips, " But I am gonna get you two together somehow."

" Uhh does Tai like me?" asked Sora.

" I think he does; he just doesn't know it yet!" said Kari.

" Oh that helps." Sora said rolling her eyes.

" Don't worry Sor, this'll work out! You'll see!" persuaded Kari.

" I hope you're right." Said Sora, " Well I should probably get going."

" All right! I guess I'll see you later."

" Kay," said Sora heading out the door, " Don't tell anyone or…"

Sora made a slicing motion across her neck with her hand.

" Okay bye." Said Kari waving.

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Tai thought about what had just happened at his house. He was a bit confused. Did Sora like him? Hmmm, no it couldn't be they were just friends right? Tai thought about when he was trying to get Sora to like him. Tai hadn't told Sora that he lied about asking four girls to homecoming he hadn't ask anyone. He had really wanted to go with her to homecoming his junior year. But he hadn't asked her because she was still going out with Matt.

After that he got tired of chasing Sora. He decided to go after other girls. Lots of girls had been interested in Tai but he'd always ignored them because he was interested in Sora. Tai's new popularity with the girls was due to the fact that he finally gave into all of them. Over time Tai felt like he'd gotten over Sora.

He had, hadn't he?

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**Well has he? Keep reading to find out! **

**How was that? Good, bad, ugly? (hopefully not any of the last two but if it is I guess I want to know... be nice though please)**

**Feedback always appreciated!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Greetings all!**

**Another installment in this story is here!**

**There's another piece in this story let me know how it goes because I want to know if you guys can understand what's going on. My story would be pretty pointless if you couldn't.**

**Shout out to all who published reviews!(nine reviews yes!) They really help me out. Keep rockin' guys!**

**Special thanks to those who have written multiple reviews, darkened-storm, PrincessJaded, Justicez, hpswst101, if ur awesomeness were bricks you'd be The Great Wall of China!(btw PrincessJaded I changed to no space before the first word in quotations. My teacher caught me on that one in of my stories for english; so I'll try and do that from now on.)**

**Anyway... back to the story**

**(I don't own anything)**

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Sora saw the ball coming towards her side of the court. She ran and slid on the red clay of the court to reach the ball, but slid a bit too far and was forced to hit an awkward shot. The ball came low off her racquet and fell into the net. Sora swore under her breath and hit her racquet against her shoe to get the dusty red clay.

_"Gah, my shoes and socks are getting so dusty!" _Sora groaned inwardly_ "I hate playing on clay!"_

Playing on this court was a lot different from the cement courts she was used to playing on. This court was made of clay and had a layer of red dirt made of crushed brick on top of it. It was no wonder people called plating on this surface " dirt-balling". Sora was thoroughly frustrated having to play on it. The court surface was loose so she would have to slide instead of stopping when she was moving to fast. The dirt on the court slowed down the ball significantly making it hard for her to hit winners. Also the clay and dirt on the court was a not completely even so the ball sometimes bounced unpredictably. The end result was that Sora was losing to a mediocre player. She had dropped the first set 6-3, and was losing this one down 4-1.

Sora sat on the bench, angry at her situation. She needed to win this match. Her team had already lost overall but Sora had nationals on her mind. The national tournament was an invitational. A committee would review players from all over Japan and decide who the best were and invite them to the tournament. The number one consideration would be a player's senior year high school record. A loss here could seriously hurt her chances of going to nationals.

She buried her face in her towel and thought.

_"How can I win this match?"_

She thought of her tennis hero Rafael Nadal. His nickname was the king of clay. How did he do it? After considering this Sora decided on a new game plan.

`Sora went onto the court and applied her new strategy. She started dropping her racquet head low to the ground and whipped up on it with topspin instead of hitting through the ball like she usually did. (Sort of like a buggy-whip/snake shot for any "Prince of Tennis" fans out there) The first time she tried it the ball went a lot higher than she intended and Sora thought the ball would land past the opposite baseline. Even her opponent stopped getting ready to call it out. But the topspin Sora applied made the ball dip dramatically and it bounced just inside the baseline.

This play style allowed Sora to take control of the match. Even when her opponent figured out that Sora's balls were going to be landing in, the heavy topspin made the balls bounce very high, some over her head. Sora finally grinded the match out to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Sora let out a " Yes!" and pumped her fist.

"Nice match Sora!" congratulated Lily Anne. "You're the only one who won this time, well you and Megan…"

"Oh yeah…" said Sora.

True to her word Megan had worked her way up the team's ranking ladder and was now playing no. 3 singles as she was no. 3 on the ladder now.

"She's going to challenge me next." Said Lily Anne. "I'm kinda worried she's won 9 matches in a row and only dropped like 4 games total."

"Don't worry Lily, just do what I told you, just slice and keep it low."

"I dunno, Sora, I can't do it as well as you did."

Sora didn't really believed Lily would be able to beat Megan but she hoped Lily would. She didn't really want to play Megan again.

"Hey have you seen Tai around?" Asked Sora.

Kari had said she'd get Tai to come to her match. Sora hoped the two would get a chance to talk for a while. The two of them hadn't gotten a good chance to talk since that weekend when they studied togther. There conversations had been limited to short exchanges of "hi" how are you doing?" and other relatively substanceless conversation. Sora wondered if Tai was avoiding her.

"Yeah I think I saw him earlier," Replied Lily, "Just look for his hair you can't miss him."

" Okay cool," said Sora looking around.

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Tai had arrived at the match just in time for Sora's match. Kari had been strangely insistent that he go to this match and see Sora play. Tai assumed it was simply because sh wonted to be alone with T.K. After some prodding Tai agreed to go, he hadn't seen Sora play in a while anyways. He watched the first two sets of Sora's match, he'd forgotten how much fun it was to watch her. He cheered when Sora came back to win the second set. During the break between sets something Tai went to get a drink from one of the vending machines nearby.

Tai was walking back to the court Sora's match was on when he ran into one of Odaiba's players walking off the court. She was tall, blonde and very pretty so Tai decided he'd say hi.

"Hey there," said Tai, "I haven't seen you on the team before."

"Yeah I'm new here," She replied after deciding Tai was attractive enough to talk to, "I'm Megan."

"I'm Tai, so where are from?"

"California, around Los Angeles."

"Cool! I was there for a soccer tournament once."

"Soccer huh?"

"Yeah I'm our team's best striker!" Tai boasted.

Tai and Megan continued to talk for some time and Tai didn't make it back to see the rest of Sora's match.

"So what is there to do around here?" asked Megan, "In California there was always a lot of cool stuff to do. I'm not sure what you guys do around here."

"Well have you ever been to sushi?" asked Tai.

"Hey Tai!" interjected Sora having finished her match. Tai turned to return here greeting. That's when Sora spotted Megan who had been in front of Tai. Her expression showed a hint of anger and jealousy that she was hanging out with Tai, but only for a second. Tai of course didn't notice it but Megan did.

"Hi Sora I was just," Tai started to say.

"He was just going to take me out to sushi." interrupted Megan,

"Uh… yeah," said Tai

"Thanks no guy's been nice enough to show me around, or at least not one as good looking and athletic as you." Commented Megan, trying to turn her flirt level up a few notches.

" You're welcome you're not too bad looking yourself." Replied Tai, taking Megan's bait hook, line, and sinker.

" Hahaha," Megan giggled, " aw thank you,"

Sora could barely believe what was happening.

_"C'mon Tai not her please not her!"_

"Sora you want to come?" asked Tai.

"Uh, ok" Sora answered deciding she should probably keep an eye on Tai.

"All right let's go!" exclaimed Tai.

Tai led the way with Sora and Megan following behind glaring at one another as they went along. They reached Tai's car, Tai twirled his keys and unlocked it.

"Shotgun!" Megan shouted and ran for the passenger seat.

"Hey!" exclaimed Sora as Megan sprinted past her.

"Snooze you lose!" taunted Megan.

Tai laughed along with her and got into the car. Sora's fingers curled toward her palm like she wanted to choke something or someone… But she tried to keep herself under control and got into the car.

"Wow this is a real nice car!" complimented Megan.

"Yeah I fixed it up myself!" bragged Tai patting the dashboard "You should've seen it before! I got a great deal on it though because of that. I'd never be able to get one of these babies new."

"So you won right?" asked Tai Sora, starting the car.

"Yeah!" said Sora, happy to finally be joining the conversation.

"You've got some guts Sor! I saw you win the second set, it was intense!" said Tai.

"Thanks Tai!" Sora said smiling

"I can't believe it took you that long!" Megan said in a joking tone, but Sora could tell she was serious by the way Megan looked at her. " I'd have finished her in straight sets. I won 6-1, 6-1!"

"Yeah at three singles! I can't believe you let her have two games" retorted Sora "I saw the girl you were playing and she was no good at all. I'd have beat her 6-0, 6-0."

"Ha, right! I saw you on the clay. You've never played on this stuff before have you? You looked real funny trying to move around."

"Hey! I watched you too and you made a lot of errors. Not used to having to keep the ball in play huh?"

"Well at least I didn't look like a newborn foal, legs everywhere trying to stand up on the court!"

Megan and Sora continued going back and forth like this the entire way. They said things like they meant it in jest so Tai wouldn't sense the tension going on. But the two of them knew there was a real battle taking place. Fortunately due to Tai's aggressive driving it didn't take that long to get to the sushi restaurant.

All three of them sat down at the counter where the Sushi was going past o a conveyer line. Both girls sat on opposite sides of Tai.

"This is so cool!" exclaimed Megan watching the different plates of food go past her. " What do I do Tai?"

"You just pick out a plate you want from here." explained Tai, grabbing a plate, "Here try one!"

Megan grabbed one and took a bite. Her face soured.

_" Ha! Stupid!" _Sora thought to herself.

"You're not supposed to just eat it like that!" said Tai, "It's raw fish after all! Here try it with a little bit of this sauce!"

"Oh that's much better!" commented Megan, eating the sushi which now had some soy sauce on it.

The rest of the meal Tai mostly just paid attention to Megan having to explain everything about eating sushi to her. Megan and Sora fought less with Tai between them, but Sora tried to make fun of Megan for not knowing how to eat sushi as much as she could. Megan too jumped on any chance she could to insult Sora. It made her mad that Tai was paying so much attention to Megan, but she tried to keep that below the surface.

Finally the time came to leave for home. Tai drove Sora managed to get shotgun this time. Tai dropped Megan off first.

"Whoa is this your house?" asked Tai impressed by the mansion that stood in front of him.

"Yeah!" said Megan " Not bad huh?"

"I'll say! What does your dad do?" asked Tai.

"I don't exactly know he's like the president of something or other," replied Megan.

"Wow I'll have to come over sometime!" exclaimed Tai, "See you at school?"

"Yeah! See ya later babe!" Megan said blowing a kiss as she left. Sora groaned under her breath.

"Well that was fun huh?" Tai commented pulling back onto the road.

"Sure," Sora replied without conviction.

"Well I had a good time." Exclaimed Tai.

Tai dropped Sora off at home and she waved goodbye.

_"Wow that could not have gone any worse." _Thought Sora.

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Kari placed two large icees on her family's kitchen table.

"Okay these are the biggest size that Yolei said they have at their convenience store." Kari said to T.K. after sitting down next to him. "You ready?"

"You know I am!" answered T.K. confidently.

T.K. and Kari each put a straw from the icees in their mouth.

"Go!" shouted Kari.

With that the two of them started slurping down the frozen drink down the straw as fast as they possibly could. After about 20 seconds with neither of them bothering to take a breath…

" Haha!" T.K. shouted in triumph, "That extends my winning streak to four in a row!"

"Oh man!" shouted Kari, finishing hers a second after T.K.

Then suddenly both of them noticed a strange sensation in their heads. They reached their hands to their heads, eyes wincing in pain.

"Ahhh! Brainfreeze!" they both shouted in unison.

They got up from their seats hoping standing up would help get some warm blood flowing up to their heads. Unfortunately both their eyes were still closed from the headache they had.

Tai walked in just as Kari and T.K. clunked heads and fell onto the floor.

"Uh.. okay," Tai said confused.

"What's going on in here?" exclaimed Mrs. Kamiya coming to see if something was wrong.

"I don't know Mom but I suspect it's something stupid." Commented Tai.

T.K. and Kari were both laughing on the floor.

"You're just jealous of how awesome we are!" said Kari.

"Yeah that's it," said Tai.

"Don't worry Mrs. Kamiya, Kari and I do this all the time!" assured T.K.

"Okay, but you kids be careful okay?" said Mrs. Kamiya

"We'll be careful Mom." Kari said.

Kari got back on her feet with a little help from T.K.

"Hey Tai did you have a good time at Sora's match?" asked Kari, curious to know how things went.

"Yeah I met this real hot girl from America who's on Sora's team. Me her, and Sora went out for sushi afterwards." Tai answered.

Kari met this with mixed emotions. It was great Tai spent some time with Sora but she was also pretty sure Tai paid a lot more attention to this new girl more than Sora. Kari decided she'd try and get Sora's side of this later.

"Well that's good you had a good time Tai." Said Kari.

"Oooh, we gotta go Kari!" T.K. said after checking the time on his cell phone, "Ken, Yolei, and Davis are meeting us at the theater in ten minutes."

"Kay let's go!" said Kari.

"Alright you guys have fun," said Tai.

"Just not too much fun." Tai added looking straight at T.K.

"Oh Tai you worry too much." Said Kari heading out the door, " Bye Tai!"

"Bye you guys." Said Tai.

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Later that night Kari went on her computer to try and talk to Sora.

**KamiyaKat109: **how'd things go with Tai?

**10s4ever17: **not so great he spent all his time hanging out with this girl from American, Megan Morrison

**KamiyaKat109:** I heard about that : (

**10s4ever17:** it wouldn't have been so bad if she wasn't such a total bitch. I think she was flirting with Tai just to get back at me : (

**KamiyaKat109: **Tai ate it up didn't he?

**10s4ever17:** totally

**KamiyaKat109: **sorry he's so stupid some of the time, well most of the time

**10s4ever17: **it's not your fault, maybe Tai and I just weren't really meant for each other

**KamiyaKat109: **don't say that Sora! Tai just needs to be able to see clearly is all

**10s4ever17:** well he hasn't yet

**KamiyaKat109: **he will you'll see!

**10s4ever17: **I hope so but it's just so frustrating, it seems like hes gone out with every girl in our school but me!

**KamiyaKat109:** you and Tai are meant to be together I just know it! I remember when he was obsessed with you? I know he still is deep down.

**10s4ever17: **I sure hope so, but it must b buried pretty deep

**KamiyaKat109: **we'll unearth it just you wait : )

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**KK thoughts, comments, questions, snide remarks? Tell me in a review!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Salutations!**

**Hope you all are enjoying summer cuz I am! (My condolences if it's not summer where u r)**

**Thanks for reviews those of you who cared to do so! I love you all!**

**Just a warning for this chapter, it may be upsetting for Taiora fans out there. Try and keep a "darkest before the dawn" maxim in mind while you're reading.**

**I don't own digimon or any other copyrighted thing I mention in my story **

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There they were again. Tai and Megan were on the soccer field. Sora glanced over and fumed as she watched the two of them. They'd been together a lot since they met at Sora's match.

"Hahaha!" Megan giggled as she again failed to kick the soccer ball in the right direction, "I'm not too good at this."

"That's okay," laughed Tai chasing after the ball. "Here try again!"

Sora watched and clenched her teeth angrily.

_" I am so much better than her at soccer!" _Sora thought seeing Megan fumble the ball around with her feet.

It was maddening. Though what was worse what was the fact Tai was so eager to help her and that he would play with Megan instead of her even though she wasn't very good at all. Tai really seemed to like Megan.

Sora decided to leave before she got madder. But it would have been difficult for that to happen. She kept walking trying to think about something else but nothing really came up.

Matt was sitting under a tree on a bench playing his harmonica. He saw Sora pass. She looked pretty upset.

"Hey, Sora!" He shouted from his seat on the bench.

"Oh, hi Matt." Said Sora only looking at him for a second then bringing her gaze back to the ground.

"You look like you have something on your mind," Matt said to Sora.

"Yeah sort of," Sora said in a soft voice.

"Here why don't you sit down right here next to me," Matt said patting the space next to him on the bench, "It'll be just like when you and I were going out except I won't try to kiss you and I'll actually listen to what you have to say instead of staring off into space."

_"Hmmm," _Sora thought about it. It would be nice to have someone to talk to about all this. Sora sat down next to Matt.

"So what's up?" asked Matt putting his harmonica down.

"Oh it's Tai," Sora said crossing her arms.

"What's he done now?" Matt asked, "He has been known to do dumb stuff."

"Well he's been going out with that Megan Morrison a lot lately."

"Ah another one of his loser girlfriends, eh?"

"Yeah, but it just annoys the hell out of me Matt!" Sora said raising her voice, "He just keeps picking girls based just cuz he likes their looks. But all of them are huge jerks especially to me!"

Sora realized she'd been yelling and put her hand close to her mouth.

"I'm sorry for getting so upset Matt." Sora apologized to Matt.

"It's alright Sor," Matt said sympathetically, "I've been pretty worried about him too. But I know it must be really hard for you since you guys are really close. I admit I haven't been as close to him lately."

"I really haven't either, since he started going out with all those girls. But I am really worried about him."

"Yeah, me too. You should talk to him about it."

"I have but I don't know if he's listening to what I'm saying."

"Well I'd keep trying something has to get through that think skull of his sometimes."

"Okay Matt,"

Sora laughed and Matt smiled. Sora had forgotten how good Matt was at listening when he was trying. He was a lot better than Tai. Sora started to miss being with Matt a little. But she knew they weren't really girlfriend-boyfriend material. But it still made Sora think for a little bit.

Sora just continued to think while Matt played on his harmonica. Eventually she left to go home for dinner. She was still mad but she felt better.

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Sora walked in the direction of the tennis courts but she didn't really want to go. She had to Megan again today. She'd beaten Lily Anne fairly easily and now got the chance to challenge Sora for the top spot. Megan was going to be tough to beat two times in a row. But Sora couldn't afford to lose the top spot on the team. It was rare for someone less than a team's no.1 player to be chosen for nationals.

Megan was already on the court bouncing a ball with her racquet when Sora came onto the court.

"So you ready to lose this time?" Megan said menacingly.

"No but I hope you are!" Sora said in kind.

During the warm up both Sora and Megan were trying to outdo one another hitting the ball as hard as they could to wherever the other one wasn't.

Pretty soon it was time to start the match. Sora started out serving. She had a tough time but held her serve. Megan held her own easily. The two went on like this till it was 4-3 Sora was up with Megan serving. Then Sora noticed a pain in her right elbow.

"_Damn it! Not now!" _

Sora hoped it wasn't but she knew it was, tennis elbow. Some of the tendons in her elbow were tearing. She had gotten it her sophomore year because she wasn't used to playing so much tennis. Sora had been training pretty hard this year. She had thought her arm would be able to take it. Unfortunately it looked like she was wrong.

Sora sat on the bench wondering whether she should continue.

"Hey are you going to get back on the court or are you gonna just give up?" Megan taunted, "I wouldn't blame you if you gave up though!"

That did it Sora would fight this match out to the end. With sheer determination Sora put the pain aside and managed to take the first set 6-4. But the pain got worse each game till Sora couldn't ignore it any longer. She switched to hitting with two hands off both sides to try and lessen the impact on her right arm. However, she lost reach on both sides and wasn't used to hitting her forehand with two hands. Megan caught onto it quickly and took advantage taking the second set 6-3.

The last set the pain in Sora's arm was nearly unbearable. But Sora was not going to quit. As long as she could still stand she was going to fight. Megan started to notice Sora wincing when she hit the ball. So instead of hitting the ball away from Sora she put the ball just into Sora's reach, making her hit more balls. Each stroke hurt Sora but she kept swinging. Eventually Megan would get bored and put the ball away.

Sora was giving everything she had but she couldn't match Megan like this. Finally it was match point for Megan. Megan was toying with Sora moving her slowly back and forth around the court. Megan used a drop shot and drew Sora into the net. It was all Sora could do to get to the ball and hit back a weak reply. Megan was waiting for Sora at the net. Megan took back her racquet for a huge swing and hit the ball straight at Sora. Sora tried to defend herself but the ball was moving too fast. The ball hit her square in the face. Sora fell backward onto the ground.

Megan won the match 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.

"Don't bother getting up," Megan said, "I'm leaving."

Lily Anne helped Sora up.

"Sora are you alright?" She asked.

"No I don't think I am…" Sora replied. There were so much inside of her right now, pain anger, sadness, disappointment. It was hard to sort out which of these was the strongest, but there were tears in Sora's eyes.

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The doctor had told Sora there was some pretty serious damage to the tendons in her right elbow. She couldn't play tennis for at least a week. Her arm was in a sling to prevent any further damage.

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Sora decided to try and talk to Tai about Megan. It made her upset that she had to schedule a week in advance so Tai could clear his schedule. Between Megan, soccer, and other things Tai was doing he was pretty busy. But at least she got to see him.

Sora's arm was healed up enough for her to use it regularly. She was starting to play some tennis with it. It was still hurt a little when she hit the ball and her arm was a little weaker than it used to be. With time Sora hoped to work herself back into championship form. It was hard for her right now though. If she could work things out with Tai she would at least have conquered one mountain.

Tai arrived late as usual at. Sora had invited Tai to their favorite spot in the park, a little gazebo next to a nearby stream with a vendor serving coffee and snacks nearby. The two of them used to come there everyday after soccer practice when they were in middle school.

"Hey Sora! Sorry I'm late. Do you want anything to eat or drink?" Tai asked pointing to the little stand not to far away which was serving food.

"Sure get me an iced Chai Latte." Sora said.

"Okay, I'll be right back." Tai went off to get what Sora had asked for.

He returned shortly with one drink for Sora and one for himself. The conversation started out light as the two talked about school and sports. Eventually Tai asked about Sora's injury.

"I got it when I was playing Megan. It's getting better but it still needs time to heal." Sora said about her elbow.

"I hope you get better soon." Said Tai,

"Thanks Tai," said Sora smiling, "Speaking of Megan she's the reason I wanted to talk to you."

"Oh, yeah Megan," Tai's smile grew at the thought of her, "I really like her! I think I'm gonna ask her to go steady!"

Sora's smile quickly faded.

"I don't think you should be dating her Taichi!" Sora nearly shouted.

"What?!" Tai seemed surprised, "I thought you said I could have a girlfriend?"

"Yeah if she wasn't bitch! But that girl is a bitch with a capital 'B'!"

"I think you're exaggerating Sora. Megan seems nice."

"No I'm not, she's given me nothing but trouble since she came here!"

"I can't believe that Sora! I haven't seen any of this."

"Didn't you hear her in the car when we went to sushi? She was insulting me the whole time!"

"She was just joking around Sora."

"No she wasn't Tai. She may have sounded like she didn't mean what she said but I know she meant every word. You know my elbow injury? She purposely made me play longer to make the injury worse!"

"Sora you can't prove that!"

"Damn it Taichi! I can't believe you're defending her!"

"And I can't believe you're accusing her of this!"

Sora couldn't believe things were going this badly. She got up on her feet and Tai did too.

"You don't know how much she hurt me Tai! She's probably going out with you just to hurt me!"

"Oh so you think I couldn't get someone to like me just as I am? It needs to be some other reason?"

"No that's not it at all! Tai it hurts me to see you going out with girls that are just going to hurt you. She's just using you Tai!"

"You don't know what you're talking about Sora! I think I know enough to make my own decisions!"

"Don't do this Tai! You're going to regret it!"

"You can't tell me what to do! You're not my Mom! I'll do what I want!"

The two of them were right in one another's face at this point. They had fought before but never like this. They were in a battle of wills. Tai really liked Megan and Sora really hated her. As in cases where an unstoppable force meets an immovable object the two just bounced off each other with nothing really changing.

"I've tried to please you Sora, I gave up hanging out with so many girls all the time. I didn't have to or want to do that. I did it because you're my friend. But you're not going to run my life! I'm going to date Megan! Why do you care so much?"

"Because I care about you Tai! I…I,"

Sora stammered with the next part. She wasn't sure if she had the courage to say it. But somehow in the rage of emotions going on inside her it slipped out.

"I love you, Tai."

There, she had said it. Suddenly neither of them was talking. It seemed like there was no noise at all. Tai's expression softened but soon it turned back into an unpleasant scowl.

"I waited for you Sora. It seems like I waited for so long for you. I wanted you to say that. I wanted you to say that so badly."

Tai's voice was more gentle but there was still anger in it.

"But in that long time I got tired of waiting. I've moved on Sora. Megan's my girl now."

Sora wanted to say something but she couldn't think of the right words. There weren't sufficient words to say what she felt right now. Even if she had thought of some her mouth was shaking too much to form words. She could feel tears running down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry Sora," Tai said turning his back to leave. There was a tear in his eye as well but he felt like he had to do this.

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Sora ran home. The road in front of her was blurry from the tears in her eyes. When she got home she went into her room. She grabbed the racquet Tai had given her after her first one broke. On the side of the throat it had "Go kill'em! –Taichi" written on it.

Sora went outside her apartment and smacked it on the concrete. A crack formed at the top of the head. She hit it against the ground again and again and again. Soon the racquet was in fragments with only the strings holding it together. Sora threw it into the dumpster and started the long walk back up to her apartment.

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**I listened to sad music while I wrote this for inspiration and almost cried. Okay no I didn't but I was sad.**

**Tell me what you thought please, feedback is really helpful!**

**Also tell me if my editor (aka my sister) missed anything so I can rub it in her face, haha! (Though really it's just as bad for me since I made the mistake in the first place, oh well).**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hopefully this chapter will help people feel better after the last one**

**I wrote this one as quickly as I could because I wanted to feel better after the last one too**

**I would have released this earlier if my editor, aka my easily distractible sister, had gotten through it sooner**

**Thanks to those of you who have continued to follow this story and given me reviews, MegumiFire, Justicez, hpswst101, and xxorangexxmonkeyxx at least those are the ones who reviewed my last chapter. You guys kick ass more than a three legged man in an ass-kicking contest! Others who I haven't mentioned right me a review and you too can be recognized by one of my strange compliments!**

**anywho here it is for your reading pleasure**

**I don't own anything R&R!**

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"Hello?" Mimi said knocking on the Takenouchi's door, "It's me, Joe, Izzy, and Matt. We didn't see you at school today. Your Mom said you weren't feeling well; we came to see if you were alright. Sora?"

"Maybe we should go guys. I know I don't like to have people around when I'm sick." Said Joe.

"But I'm worried about her!" exclaimed Mimi, "I'm going in!"

"Mimi!" Matt said, trying to stop her. But it was no use. Mimi had her mind pretty much made up. She used the key Sora had given her.

Mimi peered into the apartment.

"Sora?" Mimi looked around for her friend. Joe, Matt, and Izzy followed her in.

The TV in the family room of the apartment was showing "The Notebook". Just above the couch Mimi saw a little bit of Sora's red hair. Mimi went over to see her.

"Sora, are you all right?" Mimi asked coming around in front of the TV to see Sora.

"Oh hi, Mimi," Sora replied softly.

Sora was curled up on the couch under a blanket. There was a pile of used tissues next to her. She looked up at Mimi. Mimi saw her eyes they were redder than normal. The rest of the group came around to see Sora.

"We were worried about you Sora." Said Matt.

"We missed you at school." Said Izzy.

"I just don't feel too well." Said Sora.

"Do you want some soup? I brought some." Said Joe holding up a can.

"That sounds…really nice, Joe" Sora replied.

"Okay I'll get some started." Said Joe running off to the kitchen.

"So what's wrong Sora?" asked Mimi curling up alongside her.

"It's a long story…" Sora said looking down at the ground and remembering everything that had happened.

"We've got time." Said Matt sitting down and looking at Izzy for him to do the same.

Sora sighed.

"All right." She said. She told everyone there what had happened. About Megan Morrison the girl from America who had become her nemesis, and about Tai who chose Megan over her. There were points in the story Sora had to pause because her voice was wavering from getting a little emotional.

"That's terrible Sora!" said Mimi almost crying herself.

"That would explain why Tai didn't come to his usual spot at our table today." Said Izzy.

"I'm so sorry Sora." Said Matt.

"It's not your fault," said Sora, "Its stupid Tai and Megan!"

"Here Sora. The soup's ready." Said Joe offering Sora a bowl.

"Thanks Joe," said Sora "And thank you all for coming. It's nice to know I have some friends."

"We're here for you Sora" said Matt "Even if Tai isn't."

At the mention of Tai's name Sora started to lose it. But she managed to stay in control. Matt looked down; he felt bad that he had mentioned Tai.

"That's the hardest part of all this. I can handle Megan being a bitch, but Tai's been my best friend since grade school. He's always been here for me when I was upset. When we broke up Matt, he stayed with me for 24 hours while my parents were too busy with work. I don't think he slept," Sora reminisced, "We've had our squabbles before but nothing like this…"

After that no one said much. They ended up just watching the notebook. Mimi cried with Sora; even the guys got a little choked up.

Matt made dinner for everyone, and they complimented Matt on how good it was. After dinner everyone left but said for Sora to call them if she needed anything.

"Thank you all so much." Sora said as they left.

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Tai carefully pried open a window to a basement. He'd done things like this before to get into his girlfriends' houses when his girlfriends' parents were less than approving; but never to a house like this before. Tai looked around.

_Wow, even Megan's basement is nice._

It was very neat and well put together with various ornate decorations. Tai could see a pool table in one room and a large plasma TV in another.

But there was no time to look around right now. Tai was pretty sure the Morrison's had an alarm system. He found the alarm box and punched in a code he had seen on Megan's keychain next to the word "alarm". The box flashed a few times before displaying "alarm disarmed".

Tai breathed a sigh of relief.

"_All right time for what I really came for."_

Tai checked around the house. He knew both of Megan's parents worked and Megan was out doing something else, but he had to be sure no one was home to interrupt him. Tai looked around to his satisfaction and went up to Megan's room.

He took the backpack off and unzipped it. Inside there were balloons, a small pump, a few streamers, and berry skittles, Megan's favorite. The real prize though was in Tai's pocket, a silver ring. Nothing too fancy but it was real silver. Tai smiled looking at all of it; he'd really outdone himself this time. He had lent Megan his car to run errands and hid his motor-scooter about a block away. Megan would never suspect that he was going to surprise her like this. Tai couldn't wait to see the look on her face.

Tai was just deciding what to set up first in preparation for his proposal when he heard footsteps coming to the room. Quickly he grabbed his stuff and sprinted into Megan's large closet, a good sized room itself.

Tai heard Megan's bedroom door open and Megan's voice. She must be on the phone. But then Tai heard another voice. It sounded like a male voice. Tai listened for a while longer and thought it might be Kei from school. His suspicions were confirmed with what he heard next.

"So, Kei what do you think?" Megan asked.

"Wow you were right your house is huge! I think your room's bigger than my apartment," Answered Kei, "Hey aren't you going out with Tai? Will he be mad I'm over here?"

"Oh I don't really care that much about him. I'm just going out with him to get back at that girl, Sora," Megan said, "He's gotten kind of annoying lately with all this 'I really like you' crap. I say it back though to keep him around. Haha, I wouldn't be surprise if he asked me to go steady at which point I'll tell him to back off. It's been worth it to get back at that dumb girl Sora!"

"I heard about how you beat her at tennis. I'll have to be careful not to get on your bad side." Said Kei, "So you're not with Tai? So he won't mind if I do this?"

Tai could hear their lips smacking from inside the closet. He did mind. He was mad as hell at both of them, but especially Megan. He thought about coming out and confronting her. But right now he just wanted to get away from this place.

"Mmm that was nice," exclaimed Megan, "But right now we should go cruising in Tai's sweet car. He lent I to me for this afternoon. I think I'm gonna get my Daddy to buy me one. We can continue this tonight." She said sensually, "But I have to go to dinner with Tai first."

"All right let's go." Said Kei.

Tai waited till he heard the front door open and close. Tai wanted to smash everything in this house. But he didn't want anyone to know he'd broken in. So he went out the way he came as quickly he could, a toorent of curses flowing from his mouth under his breath. He felt like an idiot. Sora had been right all along and he hadn't listened. Tai got on his motor-scooter and drove away.

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Sora was enjoying some much-needed sleep when she heard her phone vibrating on her nightstand. Sora lazily rolled over to check who would have the nerve to be calling at this hour. Sora squinted to see the name. After her eyes finally adjusted she saw the name "Kari Kamiya". What did she want at this late at night?

"Hello?" Sora mumbled groggily.

"Hi, Sora sorry to call this late at night and sorry my brother was such an idiot. But have you seen him lately?" Kari asked.

Sora could sense some franticness in her voice.

"What's the matter?"

"Tai came home and said he'd broken up with Megan. Then he left and hasn't come back. I thought he might have gone to someone's house he was pretty upset. But so far no one's seen him. I'm a little worried Sora."

"You said he seemed upset?"

"Yeah, he barely talked to me. He usually won't shut up."

"I think I know where he might be."

"What where?"

"I'm going to go there I'll text you the address."

Sora started to get ready to go but then stopped. Was she really going to go after Tai even with all that he'd done to her? She didn't even know if Tai would want to see her. Sora sat down on her bed one shoe on one shoe off. She was still angry at Tai. Angry at him for not listening to her, angry at him for ditching her for other guys. Part of her was saying to screw Tai, forget about him, and go right back to bed. After all Tai got himself into this mess, she shouldn't have to deal with it. Tai should be on his own; he betrayed her after all.

But deep down Sora really wanted to be friends with Tai again. She wasn't totally sure if she still had feelings for him but they could at least be friends again.

Sora was still sitting on her bed thinking about Tai.

She thought about when she had first met. It was on the soccer field of course. It was Sora's first time on an official team and her first time at an official team practice. She was nervous and wasn't sure if she should go down to the field and join the other kids or wait in the stands.

"Hey you!" Tai had called to her, "You should come down here and play. I need one more person on my side."

Sora smiled and went down to play with Tai, who she thought he was overconfident. It turned out Tai was pretty good, but Sora kept up with him just fine. When practice was over Tai came up to her.

"Wow you're pretty good. We should play together everyday. The other people on the team aren't as good as you." Tai exclaimed.

"Okay!" Sora replied.

That was the start of what had been one of Sora's strongest and longest friendships. Things were so easy back then.

" _Why did everything have to get so complicated?" _Sora wondered.

She started pacing in a circle in her room weighing everything in her mind. She would take one step toward the door then another back.

"_This is crazy! I'm not going after Tai, especially at this time in the morning. But Tai's been my friend for so long I should be there for him…. But he also hurt me, I don't know if I want to see him right now." _The inward battle continued inside her.

Sora hit her hand against the wall in frustration. She rattled some of the pictures hung on it. She looked up at them. Strangely Tai was in every photo on her wall. Though he was just in the background of some of them, Sora found Tai in every picture.

Then her eyes fell upon a photo her and Tai had taken at a photo booth a while back. It was black and white in the shape of a heart. Both Tai and Sora were smiling and had an arm on one another. Tai had pressed the wrong button by accident creating this photo. They'd gotten made fun of a lot for the photo back then because they were just friends at that point. Tai picked it back up and it had been his favorite when he liked Sora. Now that Sora liked him she had managed to steal the photo back from him.

"_All right! This might be totally crazy and I might totally regret this. But I'm going to give it a shot." _Sora finally decided. She put on a coat and shoes, grabbed car keys, and headed out the door.

_________________________________________________________________

A little while later Sora arrived at an old warehouse on the outskirts of town. She realized that Tai might not even be here, but if Tai was upset he'd probably be here. She remembered Tai came here when he had missed a possible tying goal in the middle school soccer championships a while back. Kari had told her that he also came there a lot when her and Matt were going out.

Sora walked in. The warehouse was mostly abandoned, with dust and broken glass on the floors. She looked around for Tai. She noticed the punching bag Tai had found there and hung up swinging slowly back and forth in the corner. Not too far from that was Tai sitting, staring at the wall. Sora slowly walked over to him. She sat next to him. Tai seemed catatonic as his eyes didn't move from the spot he was staring at on the wall. His knuckles were torn and bloody, and he had a velvet box in his left hand.

"Are you all right?" Sora tentatively asked.

"Yeah aside from feeling like the biggest jackass in history. I know I don't deserve your forgiveness but I'm really sorry. You were right all along," Tai said now looking at the floor, "I can't believe I was so stupid. We've been friends longer than I can remember and I threw it away for some girl I'd been seeing for less than two weeks. I guess I'm just really sorry Sora. I really want us to be friends again is what I'm trying to say."

"I want that too. But friends listen to each other. If we're going to be friends you're going to have listen to me." Sora said.

"Yeah, I will from now on. I've learned my lesson." Tai said.

"Well I'm sorry you had to learn it the hard way, but I'm glad you finally did."

"I did. You know I got her this ring?" Tai opened the velvet box to show Sora, "Cost me like forty thousand yen. Forty thousand for some two-timing slut."

"_What forty thousand!?" _Sora was a little upset at Tai for that, but she still felt bad that he'd been hurt.

"It's alright Tai everyone makes mistakes." She said.

"Thanks for coming out here Sora. After everything I did I thought you'd hate me."

"I am still kind of mad at you. But we're friends first Tai. I can see you're really sorry."

"Thanks Sora that means a lot to me."

Tai put his arm over on Sora's shoulder. Sora was a bit surprised but she nervously returned the gesture. They sat like that till Kari came in. She ran up to Tai and gave him a big hug.

"There you are Tai!" Kari said "I was so worried! Are you okay?"

"Well I'm not a hundred percent right now, but yeah I think I'm going to be okay." Tai answered.

"So do you want to come home?" Kari asked.

"Yeah I think I do." Tai said slowly standing up.

"Yeah I'd better go home too." said Sora checking her cell phone for the time.

_________________________________________________________________

Sora drove home. She took off her coat and went to her room. On the way to her bed she took a look at the heart photo on her wall. She smiled and tapped it with her finger. Shortly she was in bed. It didn't take long for her to go to sleep and it was the best sleep she'd gotten in a long time.

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**Yay, Sora and Tai are back together! Sort of at least. Keep reading to find out if they get together all the way! (wow lame teaser)**

**But do keep reading and reviewing**

**Seriously reviews help you the reader as it helps me make a story more appealing to you and motivates me to keep writing these things cuz I know someone's actually reading this. So it really is a mutually beneficial exchange.**

**Bye for now!**

**P.S. sorry if my author's notes are kinda weird I'm real tired right now and on meds....**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey, sup everyone?**

**I'm posting this chapter before I go visit my extended family in Pennsylvania. Things usually get pretty hectic with them so I may not update anything for a bit.**

**Thanks of course to reviewers of my last chapter, The Digital Typhoon, Justicez, hpswst101, KaiserGreymon, M M forever, MegumiFire, Darkened-Storm, and my-little starr. Whuu! I usually don't have to write that much for that section! But I'm very glad I got to! Without your guys' support I prolly wouldn't have finished this chapter so soon! If I gauged you guys on a guitarhero rock meter it'd go to star power then blow a fuse from overload you guys rock so much!**

**I don't own anything but the story itself!**

**Well on to the story! Hope you like, R&R!**

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It had been two weeks since Tai and Sora got things straightened out. Things were going pretty well. Sora and Tai hung out like they used to before all of their "relationship" stuff had gotten in the way. Best of all Tai was avoiding his fangirls and Megan with ease. Sora was still playing the number two spot on the tennis team. She was undefeated at her spot but unfortunately so was Megan. Sora's elbow was just about healed but it still got sore when she played for a long time.

The topic on the forefront of Tai, Sora, and every other senior at Odaiba High was Prom. Questions like: "Who am I going to ask?" , "Is this person going to ask me?", "Should I go with this person?", "What dress should I wear?", and "Where am I going to get a tux?" hung thick in the air. In fact Mimi and Sora were discussing one of those very questions.

"I think I might actually go with more of a red." Said Mimi walking with Sora down the school hallway.

"Really? But you've worn a pink dress to every dance since we were freshman." Said Sora.

"Well red is sort of like pink. And I have not worn pink to every dance! I wore a blue one when I had to match Tai at that one thing sophomore year." Countered Mimi.

"That wasn't a dance; that was a party with dancing." Sora said.

"Whatever, the point is I don't wear pink to everything!" said Mimi.

"Fine, you don't wear pink to every formal event." Conceded Sora.

"So what are you going to wear?" asked Mimi with interest.

"I don't know it might depend on who I go with." Said Sora.

"Oh yeah who are you going with?" Mimi asked with even more interest.

"I don't know. No one's asked me yet. I think Andrew might be going to ask me. He's been real nervous around me." Sora said.

"Yeah? He's cute I guess. Do you want to ask anyone?" Mimi pried.

"I don't really think that's how it should work." Sora said.

"Well, I think you should ask Tai you would be so cute together!" Mimi said with a large smile on her face. Sora turned a little red.

"I don't know what the deal with me and Tai is exactly, Meems. I don't know how he feels, heck I not completely sure how I feel after everything that's happened."

"Well I think you two would be great together! What would you say if he asked you?"

"I can't say for sure but it's always hard for me to say no to Tai…"

________________________________________________________________________

In a different part of the school Matt and Tai were having a similar conversation.

"So I'm sort of stuck on who I should ask to prom, Matt," Tai said.

"Well I don't have as many suggestions because I haven't been as 'on the scene' lately because I'm dating Mimi. But my number one choice would probably be Sora. She's a really nice girl and you two have been dancing around each other for like ever!"

"Yeah I thought about it." Tai said. Tai rubbed the tip of his nose with his left thumb and pointer finger. Matt knew Tai always did that when he was nervous, "Even though Sora and I are friends again; I don't know if Sora completely trusts me."

"C'mon Tai Sora's not the type to hold on to a grudge. She's got the crest of love after all. Love forgives." Matt said giving Tai a pat on the back.

"Hmm I'll think about it." Said Tai separating from Matt to go to a different class.

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At home Tai was on his bed doing something he didn't do that often, think. He didn't want to go to prom with any of the stupid girls he used to hang out with. He was done with that. He thought some more and his mind turned its focus to Sora. She was the closest friend he had who was a girl. She was probably his closest friend period. She cared about him for more than his looks or popularity. She'd gotten up in the middle of the night to try and comfort him. Even after he was a jerk. She was a better friend than Tai could ever ask for.

But did he like Sora as more than a friend. He had realized how much he liked being with Sora since the two made up two weeks ago. Tai pulled out an old book he kept. He flipped through it. In it were various drawings and writings he made over the years just because he felt like it and/or was bored in class, probably the second one. Tai found the page he was looking for. At the top of the page was a drawing of a rose. Underneath were some lyrics written in Tai's messy brand of cursive.

"Though I've tried before to tell her

Of the feelings I have for her in my heart

Every time that I come near her

I just lose my nerve

As I've done from the start

Every little thing she does is magic

Everything she does just turns me on

Even though my life before was tragic

Now I know my love for her goes on

Do I have to tell the story

Of a thousand rainy days since we first met

It's a big enough umbrella

But its always me that ends up getting wet

Every little thing she does is magic

Everything she do just turns me on

Even though my life before was tragic

Now I know my love for her goes on"

They were song lyrics because Tai had never been much of a poet. But Tai had felt they encapsulated how he felt about Sora. It had been a while since Tai had penned this, but upon reading this, the emotions came rushing back. The emotions weren't as intense as when Tai wrote it, but there was still enough to send a chill down Tai's spine.

Tai pulled the silver ring he had meant to give to Megan. He'd had his eye on it for a long time. The ring was fairly simple but the design etched in it was what Tai really liked about it. Inscribed in jade Japanese characters was the phrase love never fails. Tai told the manager of the store to keep it special for him so he could come and buy it when he found the right girl to give it to. Tai finally bought it when he thought Megan was the one. Tai winced thinking about that whole situation. Tai had wanted to give it to Sora when she and Matt were dating. He was saving it for when he hoped he would win Sora.

_"Maybe that day's coming," _Tai thought to himself.

"Tai, it's time for dinner!" Kari shouted, coming into Tai's room.

Tai jumped a little because he was surprised; then quickly threw the ring and the book in his hand away.

"Uh, Tai what were you doing?" Kari asked suspicious.

"Nothing," Tai quickly replied.

Kari looked at the book Tai had thrown away.

"Oh that's the book you wrote all that sweet stuff about Sora in. Why were you looking at that?"

"None of your business. And how'd you know what was in that book it was in my locked drawer?"

"Oh please, Tai. You're terrible at hiding things. The key for that drawer is in the drawer right above it."

"And you felt it was your duty to pry into my private life?"

"Of course, Tai. If you haven't noticed you're not that good at managing your own life. It's my duty as you're sister to keep an eye on you."

"Cuz you're so much smarter than I am right?"

"Duh! Female intuition Tai, female intuition."

"So using you're female intuition, what was I doing earlier?" Tai asked making a mocking circular hand motion by the side of head when he said "female intuition".

"You were thinking about asking Sora to prom." Kari said confidently.

Tai turned and toward Kari. His eyebrows were furrowed and his face was in an incredulous expression.

"Am I good or what?" Kari exclaimed.

"Ah, lucky guess," Tai said dismissively, "I suppose, as a superior female mind, you have ideas about how I should ask her too huh?"

"Yeah! I'm a girl, we think about this sort of stuff a lot." Kari said.

"Okay I guess we can talk after dinner." Tai said resignedly.

"Hmhmhm," Kari laughed quietly to herself.

________________________________________________________________________

"So yeah then you take a left at 5th and you should be there." Sora said into her cell phone. Kari had called her for directions to an amusement park she was going to with T.K.

"_A little random" _Sora thought but maybe it ran in the family. She looked at the clock; it was after 9'o clock. She wondered whether the amusement park would even be open.

"All right thanks, Sora!" Kari said on the other side of the line, "Hey, how's your tennis?"

"My tennis?" Sora asked.

"_Why was Kari trying to make conversation? She was calling for directions,"_

"It's been alright not as good as I would like… why?"

"Just wondering… Are you going to beat that Megan girl soon?"

"Well I hope so…" Sora said. Something was going on here but Sora wasn't quite sure what. But she talked with Kari for another ten minutes about fairly random things. Some of the highlights were: gummi worms, fire drills, and cartoons they watched as kids.

"Hey Sora, have you got a date for prom yet?" Kari finally asked.

"No, is this what all this rabbit trail of a conversation has been about?"

"Just look out your window." Kari said trying to keep the laughter out of her voice but failing miserably.

"Kari!" Sora growled into the phone feigning anger. She could hear music from inside her room. She opened the window and couldn't believe what was outside.

It was Tai and the other digi-destined guys. Tai had a microphone in his hand and was lip syncing "Hey Juliet" by LMNT. Sora knew he couldn't be actually singing she'd heard Tai's voice. Joe, Matt, Izzy, and even T.K. were Tai's backup singers. They were doing a choreographed dance behind Tai and pretending to sing the back up parts. The music had been coming from Tai's car. It's back faced her apartment. All of its doors were open and it had the words "Prom Sora?" in some kind of paint on the back.

Sora didn't know exactly how to respond, but a large smile began to form on her face.

"Hey I've been watching you! Every little thing you do!" Tai pretended to sing. As he did he pointed up to Sora's window and looked right at her. Sora blushed and looked around to see if anyone else was looking. Unfortunately for her it looked like her whole apartment building and some others were watching. Tai didn't mind though, he just went on putting even more into his performance.

" I know you really want me!" Tai pointed to Sora again

"Yeah?" Tai's backup singers turned their heads like they were really asking Tai the question

" I hear your friends talk about me!" Tai pointed around himself.

"Yeah?" Matt, Joe Izzy and T.K. said again.

"So why you tryin' to do without me?

When you got me, where you want me?" Tai pointed at himself.

"Hey Juliet!" The digidestined guys made a finger motion like they were shooting a gun and pointed at Sora. The chorus continued with Tai and all the guys going into a dance routine that wasn't 100% together but was very funny to watch.

Tai and the guys did the whole song, singing and dancing like a boy band. When they were finished there were mixed opinions. Some people in the apartment clapped and cheered. Other residents yelled, "What the hell! Don't you know it's 9:30 at night!?" Sora ran down the stairs. Once she reached the bottom floor, she sprinted out of the lobby and gave Tai a huge hug. That was the only opinion that mattered to Tai.

"Tai you big idiot!" Sora shouted pulling away from Tai, "I can't believe you did that! This whole block was probably watching! I thought you hated that song!"

"I do!" said Tai grinning uncontrollably, "But I remembered you liked it."

"Aww that's so sweet Tai! You do listen to me!" Sora exclaimed.

Behind Izzy, Matt, T.K. and Joe who were high-fiving and congratulating one another, Sora spotted Kari chuckling to herself.

"Kari!" Sora shouted walking towards her like she was going to kill her, "Are you behind all this?"

"Well, I won't take all the credit but I did help." Kari said.

"So what was all that random stuff we talked about on the phone? Were you trying to distract me?" Sora asked.

"Well sorta. I called you when we got here. But these guys," Kari pointed at the digidestined guys, "Were taking forever to setup so I had to keep you talking."

"Wow, I still can't believe this! Especially that you got Joe and Izzy to do this!" Sora exclaimed.

"Well you still haven't answered the question on my car Sora!" Tai interjected.

"Oh, yes. I'd love to go to prom with your car." Sora replied sarcastically. Tai gave Sora an "are you serious" look and Sora continued, "But if you want to drive me in it that'll be fine!"

"Well I'll take that as a…" Tai paused waiting for Sora.

"I'm kidding Tai, I'd love to go with you!" Sora said excitedly.

With that Matt and Joe cheered, T.K. congratulated Kari, and Izzy let out a "Prodigious!"

"Most excellent!" Tai said like Keanu Reeves in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures.

"You guys want to come in?" Sora asked.

"Nah, we'd better go in case someone called the police!" Tai said, "But I'll talk to you tomorrow okay?"

"All right Tai!" Sora replied.

Tai did a burnout of the parking lot, shouted a "Woohoo!" out the window and roared away.

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**Well there you have it Tai has his prom date and who could be more perfect?**

**I've always wanted to do what Tai did to a girl. But haven't quite found the right one who would say yes and/or appreciate it. **

**Special thanks to M M forever for giving me the ring idea. There's more to come with that!**

**Please tell me what you thought! Reviews play a very important role in my story writing.**

**Till next time!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Well I'm back from my trip. It was hella fun! I love my cousins to death!**

**Thanks to my reviewers, almost in the double digits this time :) Even the word ineffable isn't sufficient to describe how cool you guys are. Thanks to repeat reviewers: The Digital Typhoon, Darkened-Storm, hpswst101, my-little starr, KaiserGreymon, M M Forever, xxorangexxmonkeyxx, and MegumiFire! I really appreciate all the input from you, this story wouldn't be near as good without you. Special welcome to new reviewer tennischick17! I assume you play tennis that's mega awesome! I'm glad I have someone who can appreciate the tennis stuff I put in here.**

**Disclaimer time: I don't own anything in my story but the story itself.**

**Enjoy R&R!**

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Sora exchanged high fives with her tennis teammates for a victory in their final regular season match. Sora was still playing the number two spot, as she didn't feel she was quite up to the task of beating Megan yet. She did enjoy the fact that she was having easy matches though. It gave her time to recover the damage done to her arm.

Lily came off the court and Sora gave her a big hug. With Lily's victory she had sealed an overall team victory for Odaiba. That made Odaiba's tennis team undefeated in regular season play they would be the top seed in the district playoffs.

"Nice job Lilymon!" Sora said.

"Thanks Sora!" Lily replied, "I still don't know why you call me that though. You played a good match too."

"Thanks, the name just has such a nice ring to it!" Sora said, not wanting to reveal what was really behind the nickname.

"So are we going to kill at districts or what?" Lily asked rhetorically.

"Yeah we are! Then we're going to the national team championships!" Sora replied emphatically.

The match finished with Odaiba winning 4-1. Megan won and the coach gave her special recognition. The team clapped; Sora didn't. Megan would be the frontrunner for the team for nationals if Sora didn't do something soon. Despite what Sora thought of Megan, she had to admit Megan would be well qualified. Megan had notched numerous victories over high caliber players with her bruising baseline style. But Sora put that aside for a little bit to celebrate a perfect season.

"Hey Lily, Tai's picking me up to go to dinner with some friends. You wanna come?" Sora asked.

"Alright! Sounds better than a boring evening with my family." Lily answered.

"Okay cool!" Sora said.

Tai pulled up in his car in his usual fashion, coming to a skidding to a stop just before the curb.

"Hey, you babes need a ride?" Tai asked as sleezily as he could.

"Oh we'd love one!" Sora said with equal seduction in her voice.

"Uh, is this safe?" Lily asked nervously.

"Yeah, we're just kidding. Tai can be a little sketch but I'll protect you." Sora said.

"I resent that!" Tai said, "Don't listen to what Sora tells you Lily!"

"I don't know Tai, I've heard things." Lily said.

"Well they're lies, everyone's just jealous of how cool I am!" Tai said confidently.

"Right Tai, you just keep telling yourself that." Sora said laughing.

"I will!" said Tai.

Shortly after the girls got into Tai's car, they spotted an unpleasant someone.

"Oh no, there's Megan let's get out of here Tai!" Sora said.

"Not just yet," Tai said, "Hey Lily can you open that compartment behind you and grab the motor oil out of it?"

"Okay here." Lily said handing a container to Tai.

"Kay Sora roll down the window and open this when we go past Megan!" Tai ordered handing the container to Sora.

"With pleasure!" Sora said with an evil smile on her face.

Tai waited till Megan was a little ahead of them, with all three of them pretending to be talking amongst themselves. Once Megan was a good distance ahead of them, Tai hit the gas and Sora opened the can of motor oil out the window. She scored a direct hit splattering Megan with the black liquid. Megan tried to run after them, yelling something obscene, but Tai sped away as fast as he could, with everyone in the car laughing uncontrollably. All megan could do was watch them go.

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At the restaurant, Tai, Sora, and Lily met up with Mimi, Matt, and Joe.

"Hey we decided to bring Joe along. I hope you don't mind." Mimi said.

"No problem the more the merrier!" Tai said,

"Besides, we brought along my friend Lily Anne." Sora added.

"Great it'll be a triple date then!" Mimi said excitedly, "Here Lilymon, you can sit over her with Joe!"

"Why does everyone keep calling me that?" Lily asked.

"No reason…" Mimi said looking around at her friends the way friends do when they're sharing an inside joke.

"So how was your match?" Matt asked.

"Great! We finished an undefeated regular season. I think we're going to go far!" Sora said.

"Sweet!" Matt said, "Maybe we'll came and watch!"

"That'd be great!" said Sora.

"Hey don't forget about the soccer team," Tai interjected, "We're gonna be in the district playoffs the week after prom."

"Speaking of prom, we still haven't decided what we're going to wear Tai." Said Sora.

"Oh yeah, well I'll go with what you want Sora." Tai said.

"I was hoping you'd say that!" Sora said.

"Uh oh," said Tai.

"Don't worry, Tai!" reassured Mimi, "Sora has good fashion sense."

"I was thinking something like a deep blue cuz it is my favorite color." Said Sora.

"Okay I think I could handle that… whatever a deep blue is," said Tai.

"So what are you gonna have, Sora?" Lily asked.

"I'm gonna get the biggest greasiest burger this place has!" Sora exclaimed.

When Sora's burger finally did come it was definitely big. Two huge beef patties with the works somehow stuffed between buns. Sora ended up not being able to finish, so Tai happily finished it for her. She had a wonderful time with all her friends and they did too. Even Lily seemed to hit it off with them, especially, Joe.

"So you want to be a doctor?" Lily asked Joe.

"Yeah I'm trying," said Joe.

"That's cool, cuz I want to be a Physician's Assistant!" Lily said.

"Really? Well it's tough going for both of us then." Joe said.

"I know right?" Lily said and things took off from there. It turned out both of them had doctors for fathers who stayed out too late and loved the TV show House MD. By the end of the night the two of them were going to prom together and Lily was coming over to Joe's to watch House.

The rest of the party was really happy for them, especially because it meant they could just talk to their respective date. Sora really enjoyed talking to Tai. She'd been unsure about her feelings for Tai before he asked her to prom but now she saw the Tai she fell in love with in the first place. Wild and reckless, but also thoughtful and caring, if those things ever worked together it was in Tai.

"Hey you guys have to leave it's closing time!" said one of the restaurant's employees.

None of them had realized how late it was getting because they hadn't wanted to leave. It hadn't felt like that long that they had been there either. With some reluctance the party went their separate ways. Matt took Mimi home, Joe took Lily, and Tai took Sora.

"Bye everyone!" Tai shouted from his car, "Hey Sora I don't really want to go home yet do you Sora?"

"No not really," Sora said in agreement, "What did you have in mind?"

"Ever been to a street race?" asked Tai revving his engine.

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Sora had never been to a street race. Tai took her to a place on the outskirts of town. Lit by a few floodlights and car headlights were sports cars, customized and engines roaring. Some people wore helmets and leather but some people were just there to watch.

A man not much older than Tai in a white racing suit came up to Tai's window.

"Hey, man! You're here!" he said.

"Yeah, I brought a friend," Tai said, "Thought I'd show her what this is all about."

"Too bad she's gonna see you lose." The man in white taunted.

"You wish!" replied Tai.

"All right, see you on the track!" said the man in white.

"Who was that?" Sora asked.

"That's Ari, one of the guys who usually hangs out here." said Tai.

"Is he good?" Sora asked.

"Yeah he's not bad, I can beat him though." Tai said confidently.

"Kay, just be careful alright?"

"Yeah, yeah." Tai said parking his car..

Tai and Sora watched the races from the roof of his car. It was kind of like the car races you see in movies but it was another thing entirely seeing it for real. It was exciting to watch the colorful blurs speed across the road; each driver making cunning moves to try and get ahead of the other car.

"All right Tai, your turn." Yelled Ari, pulling his car onto the track.

"You're on!" yelled Tai back at him from the roof of his car, "Hey Sora you wanna ride with me? I've got an extra helmet."

"I dunno Tai, this seems kind of dangerous," Sora said with uncertainty, "Besides won't I be adding extra weight?"

"It's no trouble, besides don't you trust me?" Tai asked grabbing helmets out of the trunk of the car.

"Mmmmm.." Sora thought, she did like riding with Tai, and it would be exciting to ride during a race, "Ah what the hell let's go!"

"Sweet!" Tai said jumping into the driver's seat through the sunroof, "Let's go!"

Sora went in with Tai in the same fashion. Tai pulled onto the track. Sora watched him as he steeled himself at the wheel. He clenched it then released it into a more relaxed grip, then pulled down the goggles he always wore over his eyes. After that he switched on Korn's "Right Now" and focused all his attention on the road.

Next to Tai was Ari in his bright red Toyota Celica. On the side he had an eagle spreading its wings. An incandescent purple light lit the bottom of his car.

Both drivers watched a girl off to the side off the starting line with a checkered flag with anticipation. She held the flag level then waved it up and down. Both cars flew from the starting line.

Sora had thought Tai drove fast normally but Tai was absolutely speeding down the road now. Everything around the car was a blur and it felt like any wrong move would send the car hurtling off the road. It was scary going this fast but Sora laughed enjoying the rush.

Tai and Ari were about even through the race, each driver gaining only slight advantages. Finally they were at the last turn before the finish, a tight hairpin turn before the final stretch. Tai cut the wheel sharply and cut inside Ari on the turn. Tai took the turn very fast so the centripetal force propelled him off the road. But Tai used Ari's car as a barrier, pushing it to the outside of the turn into the dirt. Ari lost significant speed and Tai rocketed past him to the finish line.

"Yeah!" Tai shouted as he got out of car, doing some ridiculous victory dance.

"Kuh! You won on a dirty trick!" accused Ari.

"Sore loser!" Tai retorted.

Sora gave Tai and hug.

"Wow, that was really fun Tai!" she said.

"I told you you'd like it!" replied Tai.

Just then another car pulled up next to Tai. It was a silver Acura NSX. The window rolled down revealing a driver in a helmet and full racing suit.

"Not bad," the driver remarked, "But have you got the guts to race me?"

"Who's that?" Sora asked.

"That's Eishiro, he races some on the professional circuit." Said Tai.

"So you gonna race me or are you scared Kamiya?" taunted Eishiro.

"Scared? Never!" said Tai, "You'd better sit this one out Sor, this is gonna be intense."

"How about a wager to make things more interesting? Say 50000 yen?" said Eishiro.

"Well.." Tai wasn't sure, he had that much.

"Hey you said you weren't scared." Taunted Eishiro.

"Okay, but you'd better pay up when I beat you!" replied Tai.

"Looks like we got ourselves a real race." Said Eishiro.

Sora watched as Tai battled it out on the track with Eishiro. Eishiro was much smoother than any of the other drivers. He handled the road like it was normal routine. Tai was behind till he pulled down the cover for a button on his car. It was connected to a little to a little gadget he'd installed, a NOS injector. Tai hit the button on a straightaway and roared ahead of Eishiro.

Eishiro tried to pull ahead of Tai but Tai blocked his way. Then came the last hairpin turn. Tai drifted into the turn feeling like he had the race in the bag. But Eishiro had one last trink in his bag. He pulled the same trick Tai had earlier; he cut inside and pushed Tai off the track. Tai tried to counter by steering back into Eishiro but Eishiro's NSX was too powerful.

Eishiro pushed Tai off the road and Tai went sliding through the dirt. Sora watched in horror as Tai tried to regain control of his vehicle. However, he fought a losing battle as his car refused to do what he wanted. The wheels spun on the soft dirt below them, refusing to move any direction but sideways. Tai finally stopped when he hit a tree. The tree and car shook from the impact. The sound of the crash was loud and terrible. The air seemed to go out from the audience. No one spoke, till,

"Tai!" Sora shouted as she saw a low hanging branch go through Tai's passenger side window. She ran up to his car hoping Tai was okay. It didn't look good though. Smoke rose from the car's tires and both the passenger side windows were broken. The frame looked okay but it was hard to tell from where Sora was.

She slowly approached the car looking for evidence of Tai's condition. She hesitated to take a close look afraid of what she might find. Finally she came up close to the driver's seat window

To her relief Tai rolled down the window on his side. The branch sticking through the passenger side window was less than a foot from him.

"I'm all right Sora. Just a few cuts. I can't believe he got me with my own trick!" said Tai.

"Oh who cares about that Tai!" exclaimed Sora, "I'm just glad you're okay!"

She opened the door and wrapped her arms around Tai. She couldn't stand the thought of losing him.

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**Yeah I know mostly filler, not much really happened, this is all I could do in the time I had this week... but next chapter is prom so hopefully that will be better.**

**Please review, without them it's like performing without an audience, lame.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Sup everyone?**

**Prom chapter Hooyay! This one was a lot of fun to write I think I wrote most of it in one sitting. It was hard for me to stop. But I waited for my editor so it took a little longer to release.**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed my last chapter, tennischick17, M M Forever, Justicez, hpswst101, The Digital Typhoon, KaiserGreymon, and Nadal10sfan. Thanks for bearing with me through that one. Special welcome to fanfiction to Nadal10sfan who happens to be my good friend. If you like "Prince of Tennis" at all you should check out her fic "Silent Lies". I think it's pretty good.**

**KK I don't own anything but the story itself **

**"Here I go again on my own! Down the only road I'm living on!" (Whitesnake's "Here I go Again" for anyone interested.)**

**R&R pleases!**

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"Wow! You look amazing!"

Tai was taken aback by how good Sora looked in her dress. She wore a floor length shiny dark blue spaghetti strap dress. Her hair was hung simply but elegantly down. Though what Tai really noticed was the way Sora's eyes seemed to shine, though her whole person seemed to radiate throughout the room. It sent a strange but wonderful feeling down his spine.

"Thanks Tai," complimented Sora, "You're not too bad yourself!"

"Thank you," exclaimed Tai adjusting the matching blue bowtie on his tux.

"Well if you're done staring Tai, we need to get going if we want to make it to dinner with everyone else." Said Sora.

"I can't help the staring thing. The human eye is naturally drawn to great beauty….or intense ugliness," commented Tai.

"So which am I?" asked Sora.

"I dunno maybe the second one," joked Tai.

"Tai!" objected Sora pushing him, "I don't know why I agreed to go with you!"

"Hey, hey kidding, kidding! I said you looked amazing didn't I?"

"Yeah alright, mister but you better watch it, or you'll be a sad dateless loser sitting alone at home." Said Sora crossing her arms.

"Kay point made. Let's get going."

Outside Sora looked for Tai's car in the parking lot. She couldn't seem to find it anywhere.

"Where's your car Tai?" Sora finally asked.

"Don't you remember I wrecked?" Said Tai, "My parents won't even let me drive any of their cars so… we're taking this."

Tai pointed and Sora looked incredulously.

"Tai, that's your motor scooter." She said with some disdain.

"Yeah I know, I thought about getting a limo or a taxi but I barely have any money cause I have to pay to repair my car," said Tai, "But don't worry Kari and I already tried this there's enough room for you on the back just hold tight okay?"

"You're lucky I trust you Tai, though sometimes I don't know why." Said Sora trying to figure out how to get onto the vehicle. Tai helped her then got on himself.

"Wait, what do I hold onto?" asked Sora.

"What else? Me!" said Tai with a grin.

"Okay," said Sora wrapping her arms around Tai's mid section.

With that the two roared off. Sora had to admit this wasn't so bad. She got to feel the wind on her as Tai moved skillfully through traffic. That and she got to hold onto Tai.

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Tai and Sora arrived at the restaurant first, then were soon joined by Matt and Mimi, Izzy and a girl he had been helping with calculus, and Joe and Lily Anne.

"Ugh," Sora said with disgust, running a hand through her hair. "Tai that motor scooter ride messed up my hair!"

"Haha, sex hair!" Mimi joked. Sora frowned.

"It's not so bad Sora, besides I think it looks good. You look like one of those models when they have the fan blowing for a photo shoot or something!" Tai commented giving her a big smile.

"Aww thanks Tai." Sora said. After that she didn't complain about her hair for the rest of the night.

"So who's this Izzy?" Mimi asked.

"Oh, hey everyone," Izzy announced clearing hi throat, "This is Shota."

"She's the one you're 'helping' with calculus huh?" Matt said slyly.

"Yeah," answered Shota, "He's been a big help."

"Oooh I bet!" said Mimi.

"Enough already guys!" said Izzy annoyed with their teasing, "You act like I've never asked a girl out before."

"Well when was the last time you asked someone out Izz?" asked Joe.

"Umm," Izzy thought quickly, "I asked Hiromi out once remember?"

"But she didn't say yes." Noted Tai.

"That's not all though, I was with Yuko for a while freshman year." Defended Izzy.

"She was a slut though." Said Mimi.

"Well I didn't know that at that point in time." Said Izzy.

"Okay, okay, Izzy we'll leave you alone, we're just happy you found someone. Right guys?" Matt asked the rest of the digidestined.

They all verbally agreed and sat down for dinner.

In order to be cost effective Tai and Sora just got one thing for the both of them and shared. Tai had insisted he pay for whatever Sora wanted and he'd eat soup and breadsticks but Sora refused to let him. Everyone else commented on how cute it was including Sora. Tai would just sigh and apologize to Sora. Sora would tell him it was alright.

Like their previous dinner it was easy to lose track of time because they were having such a good time.

"Uh, we should probably go." Izzy said, looking at his watch.

Everyone immediately checked the time.

"Ahh! You're right Izzy!" Mimi said, "We're already a half hour late!"

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After a mad dash to Prom the digidestined arrived, "fashionably late" as Mimi said. It was held in huge ballroom. Lights flashed around it as a huge mass of teenagers moved on the dance floor. The student government had done a good job, things looked really good.

Tai took off his jacket and sat down at one of the tables. Sora sat down next to him.

"Aren't you guys coming to dance?" Mimi asked.

"We'll be over later." Said Tai.

"Kay don't take too long," said Mimi, "Come on guys let's go."

Mimi led the rest of the rest of the digidestined into the conglomerate on the dance floor.

Tai and Sora sat at the table and talked. Something seemed different to Sora. Tai would sometimes stare off into space then respond with a "huh?" when Sora spoke to him.

"So why are we staying here Tai?" Sora shouted over the loud music.

"I uhh… well" Tai stammered rubbing the tip of his nose. Sora had noticed he was doing that a lot.

"I have something to tell you." Tai said softly in response.

"What?" Sora said unable to hear Tai.

"I have something to tell you." Tai said still not very loud. He started to dig in his jacket pocket for a certain velvet box he had out there.

"I still can't hear you Tai. C'mon let's dance." Said Sora.

"But I…" Tai tried to say.

"Not taking 'no' for an answer, Taichi!"

Sora pulled him from his chair before he could reach what he was looking for.

Out on the dance floor Tai and Sora weaved their way through the sweaty bodies on the dance floor to find the rest of the digidestined. They finally spotted a Mimi in her unmistakable pink dress shaking her hips. Tai and Sora went over to join them.

"Hey!" Mimi loudly greeted them.

Lady Gaga's "Love Game" shook the floor underneath of them.

"Let's play a love game, play a love game 

Do you want love, or you want fame 

Or you win the game 

Through the love game 

Let's play a love game, play a love game 

Do you want love, or you want fame 

Or you win the game 

Through the love game"

Sora let her body move to the beat. She looked to see what Tai was doing. He was tentatively moving but he seemed unsure of himself. Tai was usually an animal on the dance floor. Sora was surprised he was so reserved now.

"_Why isn't Tai his normal crazy self?" _Sora wondered.

He certainly was acting strange tonight.

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Megan was taking a break from grinding against guys on the dance floor to get something to drink. She had seen Tai and Sora come in together. She was extremely angry at the both of them for staining her tennis dress with oil. She hated them before that but now she had to get back at them somehow, especially Tai.

"_Guys don't dump me! I dump them!" _She thought angrily to herself.

On her way back to the dance floor, she spied the table where Tai and Sora were sitting. Tai had left his coat.

With a devious smile Megan walked over and looked around to see if anyone was looking. Seeing no one she reached into Tai's packet and felt a velvet box in one of them.

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Tai was waiting for the right moment though he couldn't quite decide when that would be. He was going to do it at the table but Sora couldn't hear him. Tai thought about it, though the dance floor was definitely not the best place to do it. He could barely hear himself think. That and most of his contemplation space was taken up by thinking about how good Sora looked. She looked so perfect, the way she moved was like poetry in motion to Tai.

In the midst of all the distractions Tai decided he'd make his move by taking Sora for a walk outside where they could hear each other talk. Tai went to go get his jacket.

"Where you going, Tai?" Sora asked.

"Don't worry I'll be right back!" Tai shouted back to her.

Tai had, had enough of dancing anyway. He hadn't told Sora because he didn't want to put a damper on the night, but his body was still recovering from the accident. His body ached and he felt weak, an unusual feeling for Tai. He hoped no one had noticde him grimace every once in a while. Fortunately being with Sora helped him forget about the pain.

Tai squeezed through the crammed dance floor to the table with his jacket. Tai put it on and reached in for the velvet box. However, it didn't seem to be there. Frantically he patted his jacket but didn't feel anything solid. He turned the pocket he'd put the ring in, inside out. The only thing he found was a slip of paper. It looked like there was writing on it.

"Who's this for? Obviously me so I took it!" read the note

At the bottom was a heart and Megan's signature. Tai angrily crumpled the note in his hand. The fist that held the note shook with fury. He scanned the place for where Megan might be. He spotted her sitting at one of the tables set up outside by herself almost like she was waiting for him. Tai rolled up his sleeves and walked over to her.

"Oh Tai so glad you could join me," Megan said with an evil grin.

"Give me my ring back now!" growled Tai through his clenched teeth.

"Whatever do you mean Tai, you must have gotten this ring for me since I'm the best looking girl here!" she said flickering her fingers one of which had Tai's ring on it.

"Give me that ring back now," Tai repeated louder now, "You rotten whore!"

"Not so fast! If you want this back," Megan showed him the ring on her finger "You're going to have to do something to me."

What!?" Tai asked.

"Matt's going to be the prom King everyone knows that." Said Megan, "And I've rigged the voting so that I'll be the queen. You get him to kiss me onstage in front of everyone and you can have this cheap little trinket back."

Megan was smiling to herself. She liked getting what she wanted, and she always did. The only exceptions were Tai and her first match with Sora, which is why she hated them so.

"No way in hell!" was Tai's response.

"Fine, then you're not getting this back." She said covering her left hand with her right.

"No," Tai went up to Megan and grabbed her by the throat, "You're going to give it back to me right now!"

Suddenly someone pulled Tai off of Megan and threw him to the ground.

"Ahh!" Tai groaned from the pain. He turned to see who had caused it. Tai groaned again when he saw Kei the linebacker from Odaiba's football team.

"If you want to hurt Megan you're going to have take it up with me first." Kei said.

He picked Tai up by the collar and punched him in the gut. Tai fell to the ground rolling in pain. Kei picked him up again this time to punch him in the face, but Tai managed to gather himself enough to use his legs to deliver a kick to Kei's face. Kei dropped him and Tai went at him, punching him as hard as he could. Kei did the same. The two traded blows but Kei seemed to be getting the better of Tai with his stronger arms.

Tai finally fell to the ground. Kei triumphantly placed his foot on Tai's heaving chest and laughed. Then a blur fly over him and knock over Kei. The blur stopped and just from the long blond hair on the back of his head Tai recognized it as Matt.

Tai got up and ran at Kei who was still on the ground. He planted his left foot on the ground and took his right leg back. Then he delivered a soccer kick that would have propelled a ball more than halfway across the field right to Kei's chest. Kei stirred slightly but didn't get up.

"Thanks, Matt. You really saved my ass." Tai said grabbing Matt's hand in a "man-shake"

"No problem I got your back." Replied Matt.

"Where's Megan? We got to get her." Tai said.

"That way!" Matt pointed to Megan who was trying to run away. Matt and Tai caught up to her fairly quickly, because as every girl knows, you can't run in heels.

Tai grabbed Megan's by the throat again and pulled his other hand back in a fist.

"You give me that ring back right now or there will be no amount of plastic surgery that can fix what I do to your face!"

"Fine whatever," Megan said.

Matt pulled the ring off Megan and gave it back to Tai. Tai dropped Megan.

"Don't mess with us again!" ordered Tai walking off.

"Hey are you sure you're all right to go back in Tai?" asked Matt.

"Yeah, I have something I need to take care of." Tai said tucking the ring into his pocket.

________________________________________________________________

Tai met back up with Sora on the dance floor.

"Tai what happened to you?" Sora asked concerned.

"Don't worry about it." Said Tai, can I talk to you outside?"

"Uh… sure Tai. What's this about?" asked Sora.

"I'll tell you once we get there." Tai said.

Outside Tai led Sora to a little park near where the dance was being held. He finally stopped by a bench and the two sat down.

"So what's this all about Tai?" Sora asked.

"Well," Tai rubbed the end of his nose and tried to collect himself, "Sora you've been like the best friend I've ever had."

Tai looked into Sora's big red eyes looking for some hint of what she was thinking. He had never really done something like this and was really nervous. He knew how he felt about Sora but he wasn't completely sure she felt the same way.

Sora stared the same way Tai did.

"_Is he really going to say what I think he's going to say?" _She wondered hoping he would. It would make all the drama and misunderstandings they'd gone through worth it.

"I remember when I first started liking girls Sor, I just looked for the pretty ones. Then I started realizing you need more in a relationship than that. You need someone who knows you, understands you and cares about you." Tai said, there were so many things he wanted to say to Sora right now and he, having trouble figuring which ones to say or how to say all of them.

Sora nodded waiting for Tai to say what she had waited for him to say for so long.

"What I'm trying to say here is uh…" Tai stammered for the right words, "Do you like Taylor Swift at all?"

Sora nodded again seriously hoping that wasn't the question Tai had wanted to ask.

"I don't really like her that much but I heard this one song from her once. Do you know that song, 'You belong with me'?"

Sora nodded once again. Her chest felt like it was going to explode from the tension.

_"Tai's going to do it! He's really going to do it!" _She shouted in her head.

"I guess I…" Tai stammered again. His tongue felt like it was thick as a mattress and he had to hold onto the handrail to keep it from shaking, "I feel like the guy in that song. I've been trying to find the right girl but I've been looking in all the wrong places. Maybe the right one has been right in front of me all along. You understand me better than anyone and…"

Tai reached for his pocket.

"I really care about you, Sora. I always have. I just wish I'd realized that sooner." He said pulling the ring out of his pocket.

"You told me you loved me before and I love you too, Sora." Tai said.

Sora started to tear up. It was almost too much for her to handle. Tai slowly pulled the ring out into the open. Tai took a deep breath and put it on Sora's finger.

"I got this ring for the girl I want to be with. That girl's you Sora." Tai said looking into Sora's eyes.

Sora finally melted. Tears ran uncontrollably down her cheeks.

"What's wrong Sora?" Tai asked hoping he hadn't done something wrong.

"Nothing's wrong Tai! In fact everything is right!" said Sora through her choked up throat, "I'm crying because you've made me the happiest girl in the world!"

Tai smiled and started to cry a little bit too. He slowly moved closer to Sora. Sora closed her eyes and did the same. Their lips met in a kiss. It was a heavenly kiss. Tai and Sora had had other kisses with other people before and they didn't compare to this. It felt so natural and beautiful like this was the way things were meant to be.

Neither of them wanted it to end so they didn't. After a few minutes they finally drew apart and just sat there smiling at one another. Nothing needed to be said, for all they cared they could sit in the emotion of the moment forever. But eventually,

"You want to go back to the dance?" Tai asked.

"All right, let's go Matt's band's going to be up soon." Sora replied.

Tai got up and took Sora's hand as she got up. When she was up he put his arm on her shoulder and pulled her close.

Sora looked around her. The night seemed so beautiful now. It was a little like when she had been in love with Matt except the feeling seemed so much more intense now.

As they approached the gym, Matt was playing "To Be with You" by Mr. Big.

"I'm the one who wants to be with you

Deep inside I hope you'll feel it too!

Waited on a line of greens and blues

Just to be the next to be with you."

_"Perfect song for this perfect night." _Thought Sora. Then she noticed Tai was putting a lot of his weight on her shoulder.

"Tai are you all right?" Sora asked.

He didn't look all right. He seemed to be having trouble standing. He'd been running on adrenaline since the fight so he hadn't felt that much pain. But now it was wearing off.

"Come on Tai let's sit down." Said Sora leading Tai to a chair. But before she could get him to sit down Tai collapsed.

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**OOoohh! What's gonna happen next? My editor (my sister) demanded to know and I'm not even telling her! You'll just have to wait for the next chapter. **

**I put "Love Game" in here mostly because of the title of my story.(Which I came up with before the song came out, Lady Gaga totally stole from me!) It consumnates things in my mind in a weird way. **

**I might not update for a little bit because I have a nightshift job now. I stay up late then go to bed when the sun is coming up. I'm like a vampire or something. **

**Kay thanks for reading and I'll thank you more if you review! Peace out! \/ m /_ That's supposed to be a peace sign for anyone wondering :) \**


	12. Chapter 12

**Yay! Update! I hope you like cuz I'm running on only about 7 hours of sleep for the past few days to write this in the midst of other things I'm doing!**

**Thanks to reviewers as always! Darkened-Storm, Digital Typhoon, hpswst101, tennischick17, and skybluescramble. You go guys! I enjoy your reviews more than I hated summer school. And boy did I hate summer school!**

**I don't own digimon or any other thing in here that's been copyrighted so don't sue me!**

**Here we go! Please review!**

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Sora had been nervously turning the ring, Tai had given her, on her finger for hours. She looked at the writing on it: "Love never fails". She prayed it was true. The two of them had been dancing around each other for years. Now they were finally together. But it seemed nothing was ever that easy.

It all seemed so perfect. Her and Tai confessed their love for one another at prom, one of the big highlights of senior year. Now she was sitting in the emergency room, dying from anticipation of what the doctor would say about Tai.

The rest of the original digi-destined were there too, still in their prom clothes. As soon as they saw Tai collapse they had come to rush him to the hospital. They were just as nervous as Sora.

"I hope Tai's going to be okay." Mimi had said almost an hour ago.

After everyone agreed with her, no one had said anything. They all just went through their own nervous habits, hoping the doctor would come out soon with good news. Matt waved his hand up and down against his thigh like he was strumming a guitar, Mimi twirled her hair with her finger, Joe scratched the back of his head, and Izzy tapped his fingers on his legs like he was typing on a computer.

The silence was broken when Kari came in with T.K., Yolei, Davis, and Ken.

"Is my brother alright?" she asked with worry in her eyes.

"We don't know," Sora said sadly.

Kari and everyone in her group turned their heads toward the ground, disappointed. Mimi started to cry. At the sight of her, the rest of the group had to fight back tears themselves. Sora was losing that battle.

"I can't stand anymore of this waiting!" Mimi shouted.

Matt pulled her close next to him. Sora wished she had someone to hold her. But the person she had come to count on, wasn't there.

"Don't worry Meems I'm sure Tai is going to be alright." Matt said trying to reassure Mimi.

"Yeah, Mimi, Tai has a way of always coming out of these things alright." T.K. said backing up his brother.

"Joe you're training to be a doctor. Can you give us a diagnosis?" Davis asked.

"Well I can't be sure and I'm not really an expert yet. But from what Sora told me about his accident and Matt about the fight, Tai could have some serious internal injuries." Joe said.

"But of course I don't know. It could be something minor." Joe said after his previous comment created a profound silence.

After what seemed like an eternity a nurse finally came out.

"Wow you guys sure are here late. It's almost 2 in the morning you know." She said.

"We're just very worried about our friend, Taichi." Matt said.

"Is he alright?" Sora asked nervously.

"Taichi Kamiya?" asked the nurse.

Everyone nodded.

"Please tell us how he is!" Mimi begged, "We've been waiting so long!"

The nurse flipped through some papers.

"Ah, here it is Kamiya, Taichi," the nurse said, "He has a mild case of mononucleosis; combined with the beating it looks like his body's taken he went unconscious. I wouldn't worry though his injuries are nothing serious. He'll just be pretty tired for a while and should get lots of rest."

The group breathed a collective sigh of relief, especially Sora.

"Can we see him?" Sora asked.

"Mmmm, afraid not." Replied the nurse, "He's sleeping right now and probably will be for at least a day or so."

Sora's shoulders dropped in disappointment. She had heard the nurse say that Tai was okay but she really wanted to hear it from Tai.

"Come on gang," Matt said, "We should go home. We're not doing any good staying here."

Everyone got up to leave. Everyone, that is except for Sora. She wanted to be there the moment Tai woke up.

"Aren't you coming, Sora?" Joe asked.

"No," Sora said, "I don't think so."

"Are you going to spend the night here at the hospital?" asked Yolei incredulously.

"I guess so…" Sora said softly.

"You can't stay here all by yourself." Matt said.

"I'll stay with her!' Kari said going back to join Sora. Sora smiled as Kari sat next to her.

"All right," T.K. said, "Call us if anything happens."

"Will do!" said Kari.

"Can we go into Tai's room?" Sora asked.

"I don't see why not. We're done with tests." Answered the nurse.

Inside Tai's room Kari had fallen asleep on Sora's shoulder. Sora was tired too and occasionally dozed off. The minute Tai made any sort of movement, however Sora would spring awake. Yet each time Sora was disappointed, as Tai would still have his eyes deeply closed. After a while peaceful sleep did descend upon Sora.

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Sora awoke when she felt someone lightly shaking her.

"Hey sleepy-head!" said Mimi, "No wonder you and Tai fit so well together you were both sleeping together so peacefully!"

Sora shook her head and looked around getting her bearings. Kari was stretching next to her, yawning at the same time. The rest of the digi-destined were gathered in different places around the room.

"Ooops did I say sleeping together? I didn't mean it like that! I meant sleeping at the same time!" Mimi said trying to correct herself.

"It's alright Mimi," said Matt, "We know to take everything you say with a grain of salt."

"Hey what are you saying?" Mimi asked.

"Just that you say some things when you mean something else." Said Matt defensively.

"So I say things I don't mean?" asked Mimi putting her hands on her hips.

Matt put his hands up as a guard.

"Well not like that but uh, I…" Matt stammered. He was trying to figure out the right words to say to quell Mimi's anger.

Sora just laughed to herself. Matt and Mimi would sometimes bicker like this. It never led to anything that serious and it was amusing for their friends to watch.

"Well?" Mimi said.

"Do you guys have to duke it out in here?" said another voice.

Everyone turned to see where the voice had come from.

"TAI!" they all exclaimed seeing that Tai was awake. Kari, Mimi, and Sora rushed over to give him a big hug.

"Ow! Ow! Not too hard" complained Tai. "I'm still kind of sore."

"I should slap you for putting us through that!" Sora said angrily but with a smile on her face, "Why didn't you tell me you got hurt so bad in that accident or in that fight? Why don't you ever tell me anything?"

"I didn't want you to worry." Replied Tai.

"Well what do you think I've been doing for the last 14 hours?" Sora exclaimed.

"I'm sorry." Said Tai.

"It's okay Tai, I'm just glad you're okay." Said Sora, "But if you want this to work."

Sora pointed to the ring on her finger.

"You have to tell me these things."

"Fair enough." Said Tai.

"Please don't ever do that ever again!" Sora said giving Tai a big hug and kissing him.

It hurt Tai, but it was worth it.

____________________________________________________________________________

Sora walked along with her friend Lily Anne who was holding Joe's hand. The two had been nearly inseparable since prom. She was happy for Lily. Joe was a good guy. She just missed hers a bit. Tai had to stay home for a while to recover from everything that had happened.

"So are you finally going to challenge Megan for the number one spot on the team?" asked Lily, "Districts are tomorrow you know."

"Yeah, I know. I'm going to take her today. I'm feeling good about this. Besides she has to pay for what she did to Tai." Sora said clenching her fist.

"That's for sure. I'd wish you luck but I know you don't need it." Lily said.

"Thanks Lil!" said Sora.

"Come on, we've got to get to AP Stats." Joe said to Lily.

"Kay, see you on the courts!" said Lily waving good bye to Sora.

Sora continued walking through the halls. She looked for anyone she knew. This period was study hall. She didn't really have anything to do so she thought she'd just talk with someone. As she scanned the room she saw something unexpected.

It looked like Tai's big hair. Sora moved closer for further examination. It was indeed Tai.

"Tai! what are you doing at school? Shouldn't you be at home?" Sora asked.

"Well, maybe but today's the big district soccer match. I have to be at school today to play!" said Tai.

"But Tai you need your rest!" Sora argued.

"I'll be alright." Tai said, "Look I'm walking without a limp, and I'm not really that sore anymore."

"You still have mono though. Aren't you tired?"

"A little but it's not that bad."

"You told me the same thing after that car accident. I really don't want anything to happen to you, Tai." Sora said giving Tai her best puppy eyes.

"Sora, I really am okay. I'll be fine."

"Tai!" Sora said, giving him a disapproving look.

"Alright, alright. I'll take it easy out there just for you." Tai reassured.

"Promise?" Sora asked.

"Promise." Tai answered.

____________________________________________________________________________

Sora walked to the courts with a determined look on her face. She was going to take back what was rightfully hers and there wouldn't be anything Megan could do about it.

Before practice the girl's tennis team coach called them together.

"I've come up with the line up for the district tournament. For consistencies sake there will be no challenge matches today so that the line up will stay the same." Said the coach.

Sora's heart sunk when she saw the line up. It had her playing no. 2 singles below Megan. It looked like something could stand in her way after all.

"It'll be alright, Sora. You'll get your chance." Lily said seeing the look on Sora's face.

"I don't know if I believe you but I sure hope so." Replied Sora.

____________________________________________________________________________

"Come on Tai!" Kari shouted from the stands.

Her and the rest of the digidestined came to watch Tai play in the district final. The Odaiba team had been barely holding on throughout the tournament with the absence of Tai. But by the skin of their teeth they had made it. However, they were in a heated battle for the district crown. They faced Akishima High School, their rivals. Since Tai had joined the Odaiba team they had never lost to Akishima. But now that they were up 3 goals to none Akishima smelled blood.

"Haha! Shut up you losers!" yelled Hotaka, the star player from Akishima, at the Odaiba crowd. The Odaiba cheering squad booed but Hotaka just laughed.

True to Tai's word he was playing within himself. It was killing him inside to not be playing to his full potential but he'd made a promise to Sora.

"_There are more important things than winning a soccer game."_ He told himself.

Sora was glad Tai was finally listening to her for once but she was also disappointed Odaiba was losing. Though the thought of anything happening to Tai made her die inside. She watched Tai on the field. The frustration on his face was evident. Every time he lost the ball he looked like he was about to crack but instead he just sighed and jogged slowly to the ball.

Looking at Tai's face Sora remembered her own frustration about playing injured. She remembered when her Mom refused to let her play when her team was counting on her. The pain she felt back then came back to her. It was awful and terrible. It was even worse to think she was doing that to Tai.

"You don't understand!" Sora had told her Mom.

But Sora did understand what it was like.

Both teams broke for halftime. The Akishima players were cheering, Odaiba's were sullen. Hotaka ran onto the field waving Odaiba's flag. He then proceeded to take it down and start using it to wipe his cleats. The Odaiba stands jeered, but then jeered even more when Hotaka started to pee on the Odaiba flag laughing as he did.

That was it. Sora had had enough. She walked over to Odaiba's bench from her place in the stands.

"Hey, Tai!" she shouted.

Tai looked up at Sora giving her a thin smile.

"Go kick his ass!" She shouted.

Tai's smile got even bigger.

At the end of halftime the digidestined started chanting Tai's name.

"Taichi! Taichi! Taichi!"

Pretty soon everyone in the Odaiba stands was chanting too. Tai waved for them to get louder and they gladly complied. Akishima started with the ball. Hotaka smiled as started to move past Tai. But it wasn't as easy this time as it had been before. Tai saw through Hotaka's fake and took the ball from him. One of Hotaka's teammates came up to try and take the ball from Tai. Tai spun the ball with his right foot and curved it around the defender. He sprinted past the defender and met back up with the ball.

With another defender coming at him Tai kicked the ball to Davis. Davis jumped over a defender attempting a slide tackle then kicked the ball up to Tai. Tai jumped up did a 360 degree spin then hit the ball with a flying kick. The ball flew from his foot into the corner of the goal.

Tai put his hand up to the ear facing the Odaiba crowd. The fans in the stands went wild. After that Odaiba was dominating the field. Akishima couldn't seem to keep the ball off their side of the field. Tai's aggressive play gave Odaiba two more goals. One by Davis and one by another of Tai's teammates.

Tai was starting to feel the effects of his ailments. He was running out of energy. Hotaka was driving with the ball towards the Odaiba goal. Tai jumped in his way. Angrily Hotaka kicked the ball straight at Tai's chest. Tai managed to absorb the impact and kick it to one of his teammates. Hotaka wasn't done yet though. Instead of going for the ball he went straight at Tai tackling him.

"Hey! Hey!" yelled the ref blowing his whistle, "I gave you a warning already Hotaka now you're out!"

"What!? You can't do that to me!" Hotaka argued.

"I just did. Get off the field." Said the ref resolutely.

Hotaka obeyed yelling obscenities as he walked.

Tai waited for Davis to kick the ball in. It went straight for him. Akishima had Tai double covered but it didn't matter. Tai got to the ball in mid air and hit the ground running, sprinting away from his opponents. Tai looked around for some of his teammates but they were far behind him. He was on his own.

It was beauty to watch Tai with the ball. It moved around him with such fluidity. It never seemed to get in Tai's way and seemed to be wherever it most inconvenient for his opponents. To Tai the ball was a natural extension of his own body.

Tai got past two defenders and was closing on the goal. Another defender went low at Tai with a slide tackle. It caught one of Tai's legs but Tai managed to jump with the other one. He was sent spinning upside down. In all the confusion Tai managed to kick the ball. The goalie had stopped paying attention after Tai tripped but now saw the ball heading straight for the goal. The goalie dived but it was too late.

The Odaiba fans in the stands cheered but then quieted down when they saw Tai not getting up. Sora crossed her fingers as people around her muttered to each other.

The suspense ended when Tai kipped up back onto his feet and pointed to the crowd who let out a resounding cheer. Odaiba was up 4-3.

At the final buzzer Tai jumped up and fell to the ground. His chest was heaving. He'd left it all on the field and it had been worth it. Odaiba won the district championship 5-3.

Tai didn't think he'd be able to get up. Fortunately Sora and the rest of the digidestined came over and carried him off the field, cheering. They dropped him in the back seat of Matt's van. Sora went around to the other side to sit next to him. As she sat down she turned to see how he was doing. She saw him lean to one side and rest on her lap.

"Mind if I stay here awhile?" he asked.

"Not at all." Replied Sora.

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**Glad Tai's okay? Tell me in a review pleases!**

**Again I might not update that soon cuz of work and business but I'll try my best : P**

**If you're waiting for my other story "The Lone Wolf and The Princess of Pop" I'm working on a double chapter for that one so that might take a little bit. Be patient. Also I'm trying to start a Kari Tai story I have in my head so I'll also be busy with that.**

**Cheers! Thanks for reading!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey all! Hope you didn't miss me too much!**

**Thank you for your support via reviews: skybluescramble, hpswst101, The Digital Typhoon, and Megumi Fire. Special thanks to don'tchaknow4life for reading and reviewing my entire 12 chapters in one day. Awesome Possum! You should check out her "College Life" story. It's really quite good.**

**I don't own digimon**

**Enjoy!**

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Cheers and applause emanated through the hall. It was awards night at Odaiba High School and Tai was receiving his award for MVP of the team. He received the award in his usual fashion, with flair. As he walked across the gym floor to receive his award, he blew kisses and waved to the students in the bleachers. Sora stood up and whistled for him. After the district tournament Odaiba High School's soccer team took third in the national tournament. Tai had led the way scoring a total of seventeen goals in six matches.

Sora was happy for him, he deserved the honor and recognition. That turned out to be part of her new problem though. Tai had been offered a full scholarship to numerous universities who wanted him on their soccer teams. They were all far away and Sora couldn't afford to go to any of them. She wanted the best for Tai, but she really didn't want to be separated from him. The whole situation had Sora's head and heart in a seemingly perpetual struggle.

Next it was time for the tennis awards part of the ceremony. Odaiba had done very well in that area as well. They had made it to the quarterfinals in the national team tournament after winning the district tournament. The team had narrowly lost to the eventual champions, Nagoya High School. Sora had won her match; she had gone undefeated throughout the tournament. Everyone else on her team, however, lost. Megan was outclassed by Nagoya's number one player, Ayaka Kitamura. She was the favorite to win the National Singles Tournament and she looked the part. She was inhumanly smooth on the court. It seemed like there was no shot Megan hit that Ayaka couldn't easily get to.

"And the award for most inspiring goes to Miss Sora Takenouchi!" said the announcer.

Sora smiled and got up to receive the award. Tai gave Sora a high five as she went down onto the gym floor. Sora held her award in front of the audience gathered in the bleachers. She beamed proudly until they announced the winner of the MVP award.

"Our team's MVP this year is Megan Morrison!" came the voice over the loudspeaker.

As Megan took her place next to Sora amidst cheers from the audience, She gave Sora a "haha take that!" smile. Sora glared at her. If Sora's thoughts could come to life Megan would have become a smoldering pile of ash right there.

"Now Coach Kaori Furukawa has an announcement to make." Said the announcer.

"I have exciting news! I have the nominations for the national singles invitational and we have two players being honored by the national high school tennis committee." Said the coach into the microphone.

"_Two?" _Thought Sora, _"One of them has to be Megan but am I the second?"_

Sora held her breath and crossed her fingers.

"I'm happy to announce that Megan Morrison has been given the number five seed in the tournament, and Sora has received an honorable mention as an alternate!" said the coach.

"_What!?" _Sora screamed inwardly. It was bad enough that Megan had been seeded for the national tournament after stealing her spot, but alternate? It was like winning five cents in a lottery. They do it to make you feel like you won something but it's hardly satisfactory.

Megan jumped up in celebration. Sora sighed and looked at the ground.

_______________________________________________________________

At Tai's party celebrating his MVP award, Sora sat by herself watching Tai get various congratulations from people. Sora wanted to celebrate with Tai but she had a lot on her mind. She wanted to sort it all out. Though as she thought about it more it seemed things only got more complicated.

"You all right Sor?" asked Tai.

"Huh?" said Sora looking up from her contemplation, "I'm okay…"

"Are you sure?" asked Tai, "You've just been sort of sitting here for the past hour. Is it about Megan getting the MVP and that invitation to the National Singles Tournament?"

"Well, sort of…" answered Sora.

"Cuz that was a bunch of bull shit!" said Tai, "You should have won it."

"Yeah," said Sora distantly.

"Is there something you want to talk about?"

"I don't want to take away from your party, Tai…"

"Don't worry about it Sor. You're more important than that. C'mon we'll go outside to that gazebo we always go to."

_______________________________________________________________

Tai handed Sora a blended chai tea from the stand near the gazebo and sat next to Sora.

"So what's on your mind?" Tai asked.

"A lot of things. First college. I don't know what I'm going to do, Tai. You got all those offers from colleges and I don't think I could go to any of them because of the money. But you should go to one of them, Tai, because you deserve to go to a good school. I want to be with you but I don't want to hold you back…" Said Sora.

"Where were you thinking of going?" Tai asked.

"I could go to Kyoto University for pretty cheap because my dad teaches there. But you didn't get a scholarship from them. I know it's pretty expensive."

"I could take a look there. I bet I could get at least a partial scholarship there."

"It would still be pretty expensive. I don't want you going into debt just because of me."

"Sora, it wouldn't be that much. Besides you're worth it."

"That's sweet Tai, but you have a chance to get through college without owing a penny. I don't want you to miss out on that."

"We could go Odaiba Community College."

"I still feel like I'd be holding you back from your potential, Tai. I'll always know that you could be learning and playing soccer for a big name university. You shouldn't waste your opportunities."

"I wouldn't be. I'd be with you. That's the opportunity I'm most worried about."

"I still don't know if that would be the best thing for you Tai. That's what I want."

Both of them just stared into the others' eyes. On one hand they were glad the other cared so much, but in a way it made things harder. Neither of them regretted the love they shared, they wanted it to work.

"So what other options do we have?" asked Tai.

"That's the other thing. I was sort of counting on being able to play in the National Tournament to get a scholarship from a big name school. But it looks like that isn't going to happen. That's why this whole alternate thing is so annoying. I'm so close but yet I'm not quite there."

Tai pulled Sora closer to him. She looked like she was about to cry.

"It'll be alright, Sora." He said, trying to calm her down.

Sora didn't quite believe him, but at least she had him with her.

_______________________________________________________________

It was a sunny afternoon. Tai and Sora were over at Sora's house where Sora was destroying Tai at Wii soocer

"Yes!" Sora said triumphantly, "That's five goals in a row."

"Ugh!" Tai groaned, "This is dumb. If this were real soccer I'd own you."

"Ha, you wish!" replied Sora.

"Well if you're so confident, have you got what it takes to back up those words?"

"You're on Tai!"

Tai and Sora rushed to a soccer field near the Takenouchi apartment. Sora took all the things out of her pockets and tied her hair back.

"C'mon Sora you can't stall my victory forever!"

Sora laughed and went to join Tai on the field. Tai started with the ball and moved it with his usual proficiency. For most it was hard to track the ball as it moved around Tai's legs. Sora was used to how Tai moved the ball, though, and stole it with one swipe.

"Hey!" Tai yelled.

"Ha!" Sora retorted.

Tai ran back after Sora and slid between her legs. He grabbed the ball between his two feet. Sora ran a few steps before realizing she didn't have the ball anymore. She looked behind her. Tai was getting up. She ran back after him.

They went back and forth for more than an hour. Neither one of them managed to get the ball down the field. Finally they called it a tie and sat down on one of the benches on the side of the field.

"We shouldn't have played full field." Sora said panting.

"Stop you're whining." Replied Tai. But he was out of breath too.

"Hey, good news. I applied to Kyoto Universty and I got a partial scholarship." Said Tai.

"That's good. How much?"

"I don't remember exactly but I think it'll take care of about one fourth of the tuition."

"Okay, maybe that could work…"

"Are you still bummed you're missing the National tournament right now?"

"Yeah… But this is good too. It's been a while since we played soccer together."

"I know. I forgot how good you were."

"Were? You mean 'am' right? All star soccer player Taichi Kamiya couldn't score a goal on me."

"I was just taking it easy on you. If I was playing for real it would've been over like that!" Tai snapped his fingers.

"Right Tai. That's why you're out of breath."

"Am not!" said Tai.

"Whatever! You need a respirator there?" Sora said laughing.

"Oh, be quiet!" said Tai.

"I'd rather have to watch Oprah for 24 continuous hours than listen to you talk anymore!" Tai joked.

"Well I'd rather have to eat nothing but those greasy burgers they serve at that place Otaru Street for a month than listen to you talk!" said Sora in kind.

"Well I'd rather have to live in a house made of my own feces than listen to you talk!" Tai said laughing.

"Oh Yeah? Well I'd rather walk into a lesbian bar in lingerie than listen to you talk!"

"Well,"

Their banter was interrupted by Sora's phone vibrating.

"Looks like I have a text!" said Sora picking up her phone, "Wow I have like fifteen messages!"

Sora read the first one and almost threw her phone in the air.

"Tai! I'm in the national tournament. Someone pulled out at the last minute!" she yelled for just about anyone in the range of 50 yards to hear.

"That's great Sora!" Tai said, "When's your match?"

Sora looked at her phone.

"It says in an hour and a half and this text was sent an hour ago…" said Sora, her eyes widening.

"Uh oh! We'd better get going." Said Tai, "You go back and get your stuff. I'll pull my motor scooter out front."

"Shouldn't we take my car?" asked Sora.

"Naw, it's rush hour. It'll be faster if we take my motor scooter. I modded it so it can do about 80."

"Alright I'll be back." Said Sora running to her apartment.

Sora ran into her room, put a tennis outfit on, grabbed her racquets, and made a mad dash out of her room. This was her big chance she wasn't going to miss it because she took too long. She frantically looked for her tennis shoes. Here was one but where was the other? Sora searched the area around her door. She finally found it under some of her other shoes.

Tai was waiting outside. Sora rushed over to him, put a helmet on, got a good grip on Tai, and roared out of the parking lot.

The National Tennis Singles Tournament was being held at the National Tennis center in Tokyo. It wasn't that far from Odaiba, but Tai had been right, there was heavy traffic. A car would have taken at least two hours to get there. On a motor scooter, however the two were making pretty good time, weaving through traffic.

Sora kept looking at Tai's watch to see the time. It looked like the seconds were going too fast. Tai didn't seem to be going fast enough. He was pushing the limits of what his vehicle could do. It was dangerous going this fast but neither of them thought about it for a minute. What was important right now was getting to Sora's match.

Tai's motor scooter screeched into town, flying past the near motionless cars in traffic. Tai started to notice it was taking more and more time to pass each car. They were slowing down.

"C'mon, you damn thing!" Tai ordered.

But his scooter refused to obey. Soon it coughed and sputtered, then stopped by the side of the road.

"Gah! No!" shouted Tai, "What are we going to do Sora!?"

"I know where this place is I can run!" answered Sora, "You stay here and put your scooter somewhere safe."

"Not a chance Sora!" said Tai, "Forget this thing. I'm coming with you."

They ran down the street, ignoring the "don't walk" signs and the cars honking at them.

"What time is it Tai?" Sora asked.

"It's 5:20," replied Tai.

Sora had ten minutes to get there, plus a fifteen-minute grace period. She didn't want to have to use it though.

Twenty minutes later, Sora was getting tired but she couldn't stop now. She was on the outskirts of the tennis center. She ran as fast as she could through the entrance and up to the tournament desk.

Her breathing was deep and quick from running. The tournament official at the desk just stared at her. Despite being about to hyperventilate Sora managed to get out.

"I'm checking in for the national tournament, Sora Takenouchi."

"Oh," said the tournament official looking at his watch, "You're just in time. Your opponent should be on the court already. Court 7."

"Thanks," said Sora running in a new direction.

"You're playing?" asked Tai.

"Yeah!" Said Sora excitedly.

"Yes!" shouted Tai jumping into the air and pumping his fist, "We made it!"

Sora went onto the court and closed the door behind her. She saw Tai kick his leg then smack his rear, signaling for her to "kick-ass". Sora smiled at Tai and gave him a thumbs up. She turned around to see her opponent.

"I sort of wished you hadn't shown up. But now I get to beat you in front of your boyfriend! Don't cry too much okay?" said Megan giving Sora a crooked smile.

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**Ooooohhhh, Sora has to take on Megan to advance in the National Tournament. What will happen next?**

**The next chapter will probably be the last unless I get an idea.**

**Do review! There won't be many more chapters after this one.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey All!**

**Sorry this took so long but I've been pretty busy lately. Besides this is the last chapter!**

**Thanks to reviewers! All of them! Kawaiigirl, my-little-starr, MegumiFire, Justicez, skybluescramble, M M Forever, hpswst101, don'tchaknowme4life, The Digital Typhoon, tennischick17, Darkened-Storm, Nadal10sfan, KaiserGreymon, xxorangexxmonkeyxx, PrincessJaded, KoumiLoccness, GinnyStarr, dbzgtfan2004, and Kai-XCrunner4life. You guys are the fuel that made this story run! It probably wouldn't have been have as good without you guys. I looked forward to what you guys would write every time I wrote. Sorry if I missed anyone, you deserve the thanks!**

**I don't own digimon**

**Well here's the last chapter! Enjoy it while it lasts!**

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Megan and Sora stood across the net from one another, pummeling tennis balls at each other. It was only the warm up but both of them were trying to get to playing their best tennis as quickly as possible. Sora watched Megan carefully. Unfortunately Megan looked as strong as ever. It looked like it was going to be a tough match.

The time finally came for the match to start. Sora won the toss and elected to serve. Sora took the ball in her hand, which was shaking. The pressure was palpable in her veins. This was her chance to make all her years of tennis count. She also really did not want to lose this match to Megan.

Sora nervously tossed the ball in the air and struck it.

"Fault!" called the chair umpire as the ball fell off the net, back onto Sora's side of the net.

Sora's arm had been stiff from nerves. She hadn't been able to strike the ball very hard. Sora threw the ball up again. Again the ball flew from her racquet into the net.

"Double fault! Point Miss Morrison." Said the chair umpire.

Sora hopped up and down then bounced the ball a few times.

_"Come on Sora. You can do this. Just relax." _Sora tried to tell herself.

The pep talk didn't seem to work though. Sora double faulted again.

She hit her racquet strings against the top of her head in frustration. She shook out her arms trying to get the stiffness out of them. Yet they still didn't seem to move as freely as usual. Sora lost the first game and Megan barely had to do anything.

"Game, Miss Morrison, four games to one." Called the umpire.

_"Damnit!" _Sora thought to herself. She was a good ways into the first set and still had not gained her composure. She concentrated hard on a spot on the ground trying to think of something to calm her down. She looked up and looked at Tai. Tai grinned in his usual goofy way. Seeing him, Sora had to smile too. Her breathing started to become more even and less frantic. Her limbs started to loosen up as well. By the time Sora got to the other side of the court she was feeling good.

Megan hit a hard serve up the middle. Sora stepped into the court and hit the ball on the rise. She used the pace from Megan's serve to reflect the ball into Megan's backhand corner. Return winner! Sora pumped her fist and went to the other service box to receive serve.

From the other side of the court Megan scowled. That last shot had caught her off guard.

"Luv-15!" said the chair umpire.

"Are you kidding?" Questioned Megan walking up to the chair to complain, "That last shot was out! Didn't you see that?"

"From what I could see that shot was clearly in." replied the umpire.

"Then you need glasses." Muttered Megan.

"That's a warning Miss Morrison," Said the umpire, "Now I suggest you return to the court."

"Hmph!" grunted Megan going back to serve.

Sora hit continued to return well and broke Megan's serve. Sora went on to hold her own. Finally it was 6-6. Sora was playing exceptionally well now. She could hardly believe the turnaround she had pulled. Before she had barely been able to keep shots in the court, now she was dictating play. She didn't have to use her usual tricks to combat Megan. Sora was taking her head on shot for shot and winning.

During the tiebreak, however, Sora decided to break out some her tricks. Sora started slicing and keeping the ball low like she had in her first match against Megan. Because Sora hadn't done it earlier, Megan had trouble getting used to the shot. The strategy put Sora up to a 6-3 lead in the tiebreak.

Sora bounced the ball and went for a serve different from her usual one. Instead of tossing the ball high up in the air, she simply dropped it from her outstretched arm and brushed under it with sidespin. The ball was much slower than Sora's normal serve. Megan set up to pummel it, but when the ball bounced it bounced to the side instead of at Megan. Megan whiffed the serve.

"Come on!" Sora shouted.

"I cannot believe this!" Megan shouted in turn, "That was out!"

"Seriously you'd have to be an idiot not to see that was out!" Megan said addressing the umpire.

"Again, I see nothing to support that." Calmly replied the chair umpire.

"Of course I get the fuck up umpire." Muttered Megan.

"That's twice now Miss Morrison! One more from you and you are out."

"Ha, like you would! You do and my Dad'll ruin you! Back in California no one would dare cross me! Now was that in or out?"

"That was out," said the chair umpire firmly "And so are you! As of right now you are ejected from the National Tournament!"

"Wha, What?!" stammered Megan, "You cannot do that! Don't you know who I am? Back in California,"

"You're not in California anymore." Interrupted the umpire, "I don't know how they run things there. But here in Japan what you did warrants an ejection. Now get out before I call security."

"Well if I can't play in this tournament neither will you!" Megan shouted rushing at Sora with her racquet.

"Security!" called the umpire.

Sora backed away from Megan who held her racquet back to swing at her. She aimed for Sora's right elbow hoping to re-injure it. Megan took a swipe but Sora managed to jump out of reach. Tai was climbing the fence to try and help Sora. Megan took another swing and Sora blocked it with her racquet and did something she'd wanted to do for a while. Sora nailed Megan square in the face with her foot.

Megan fell back onto the court.

"How dare you!" hissed Megan madder than ever. Her nose was bleeding. She got up to try and take another swing at Sora. As she got up, however, security guards grabbed her and dragged her off the court kicking and screaming.

"Get off me you creeps!" Megan screamed, "You can't do this to me! I'm a Morrison!"

"You all right?" asked Tai grabbing Sora by the shoulders and checking her over for any injuries.

"I'm fine Tai. In fact I've never been better." Said Sora watching Megan being carried off.

"Good," Said Tai hugging Sora, "Wanna go somewhere to celebrate you finally giving Megan what she deserved?"

"I think I would. Megan getting her just desserts is cause for celebration."

"My only complaint is that I didn't get to do it! Any requests for what to do?"

"Well we are in downtown Tokyo. How bout we hit that place at the top of the Fumiko Building? Mimi told me it's beautiful."

"I dunno…" Tai said pulling out his wallet and scanning it for money.

"Don't worry I'll pay." Said Sora.

"Oh no you won't! I didn't even let those dumb girls pay when I went out with them. There's no way I'll let you pay. C'mon let's go."

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The restaurant on top of the Fumiko Building was on the roof. Sora and Tai sat at the top. The view was incredible. You could see most of Tokyo and the lights of buildings were just starting to come on. The sky was just as incredible a sight. It was just about that time where the stars were starting to come out and the sun was barely in sight over the horizon, lighting the sky in soft reds and purples. For a while Sora just stared at it, breathing in the cool night air.

"Really something huh?" said Tai.

"Yeah…" sighed Sora.

"Is this the first time you've been up here?" asked Tai.

"Yes. Now I wish I could come here everyday." Said Sora.

"Well I don't think either of us has the budget for that," Noted Tai, "But it sure is nice up here. You know I used to daydream about bringing you up here?"

"You know I did too?" said Sora putting her hand on Tai's. Tai gave her a big smile and leaned over to kiss her. Sora leaned in to take it.

Sora ordered a shrimp platter and Tai got a flank steak. When they finished there was a half moon over them and the stars were shining. Van Halen's "Dance the Night Away" came on.

"Wanna dance Sora?" asked Tai, taking a cue from the music.

"I'd love to!" answered Sora.

"A live wire, barely a beginner

_But just watch that lady go_

_She's on fire, 'cause dancin' gets her higher than-uh_

_Anything else she knows_

_Ooh, baby baby_

_Won't-cha turn your head my way?_

_Ooh, baby baby_

_Well don't skip romance 'cause_

_You're old enough to_

_Dance Dance the night away_

___Oh-oh-oh Ah Come on g-girl, dance the night away_" played the music as Tai and Sora swayed on the dance floor set up in the middle of the tables.

The song ended. Sora and Tai just held each other in their arms savoring the moment till Sora mentioned that she needed to use the restroom.

"So when do you play tomorrow Sor?' Tai asked.

"10 AM." Said Sora, "You need to be there so I don't get nervous."

"You get nervous? I thought I was going to have a heart attack watching you. It's worse for me because I can't do anything. But I'll be there. I'll bring the rest of the digidestined too so they can call 911 if I faint."

"Haha okay Tai. It'd be great to have everyone there." Said Sora.

"Oh check please!" called Tai to one of the waiters.

"The bill has already been taken care of by this young lady." Said the waiter pointing at Sora.

"Wait, what?!" exclaimed Tai in surprise, "When did you?"

Then it occurred to Tai.

"When you went to the bathroom…" Tai muttered. Sora snickered from the other side of the table.

"You sneak!" Tai said getting up grab Sora. Sora got up and ran away. Tai chased Sora down the stairs till they were both out of breath from running and laughing.

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Sora awoke to an unpleasant ringing. It was her alarm. Sora groaned and hit the snooze button. About 30 seconds later, Sora remembered why she set her alarm. The National Tournament!

Sora jumped out of bed and went to her closet. This was the final day of the tournament. There were only two people left in the main draw, her and Ayaka. Sora had been playing the best tennis of her life this tournament. She attributed it to Tai. Thinking about him put her in a state that was both concentrated and relaxed. Her newly inspired play had gotten her through every opponent so far.

_"One More." _Thought Sora.

She put on her lucky yellow Nike tank top, a matching tennis skirt, and her gold Nike Air Zoom Mystify II's. She went into the kitchen to wait for Tai, who was picking her up. She did a few jumping jacks and push ups to get her blood flowing. Sora decided to check Ayaka's records online. She tried to find Ayaka's losses. There weren't many but Sora did notice Ayaka had lost a number of times to Tamiko Shigami, a high school graduated player notorious for taking the ball early.

_"Hmmm, I think I can use that." _Sora thought.

Pretty soon Sora heard a knock at her door.

"Guess who?" came a familiar voice.

"I don't want whatever you're selling." Sora said from the other side of the door.

"I think you do." Responded Tai.

"Fine what have you got?" asked Sora opening the door.

"How bout a ride to Nationals with the hottest guy you've ever met?" Tai offered.

"Sounds good to me. Let's go!" Sora said picking up all her stuff.

The final match was being played on the stadium court at The National Tennis center. Sora walked onto the court and looked around. There were seats all around her and reaching at least 3 stories. Not all the seats were filled but there was a sizable crowd. Sora didn't care about that as much as the people sitting in the front row. The whole gang was there: Tai, Matt, Joe, Izzy, Kari, Mimi, T.K., Davis, Yolei, Cody, and Ken. Having them there was all she needed.

Tai, Matt, Davis and T.K. had painted the letters "S", "O", "R", and "A" on their chests. The rest of the digidestined wore Sora themed shirts they'd made the previous night.

The atmosphere in the stadium was electric. Noise was going all over. Sora even saw a few camera flashes. The volume level rose when Ayaka came into the court. She was talking to her personal coach as she walked to her seat next to the umpire's chair.

The time came for the match to start. Ayaka won the toss and elected to serve first. As the two warmed up Sora saw no chinks in Ayaka's game. She moved smoothly to each ball and executed perfect textbook strokes. Just as a test Sora took a few balls on the rise. When she did she noticed Ayaka had a little more trouble setting up her long, graceful strokes.

The first game Sora was over whelmed by Ayaka's play. It wasn't long before Ayaka was up 3-0. Sora was struggling just to stay in points. Ayaka always seemed to be right where the ball was and put the ball in the place where it was hardest for Sora to hit.

The fourth game Sora started to take the ball on the rise more. The result was Sora was able to take control of some of the points but she still lost the first set 6-2. Sora was still getting used to hitting the shot. She wasn't yet in control of it.

Sora used her new shot throughout the second set. By the end of it Sora had the shot almost down. Sora was up 5-4 with a break point on Ayaka's serve. Sora hit the shot early with a slice and rushed the net.

The slice was on Ayaka's side by the time Ayaka looked up. Ayaka quickly ran over to the ball. She caught a piece of it and lobbed it up in the air. Sora watched the ball. It was going to go over her head. Sora backed up and jumped as the ball flew over here. Sora met the ball in the air and slammed it back into the other side of the court.

The ball went into the forehand corner on Ayaka's side.

"Set! Sora Takenouchi, six games to four." Called out the chair umpire.

Now Sora and Ayaka were even. Now it was time for a third set. Sora had nearly perfected her on the rise shot and now used it with ruthless efficiency. She jumped up to a quick 3-0 lead. Ayaka was a hardened opponent though. She had been slowly adjusting to Sora's new shot. Now Sora's shot was losing effectiveness.

Late in the match it was becoming clear that Ayaka was the more experienced player. She was holding her composure perfectly. Her play seemed elevated as well. As if she had been holding back the rest of the time. Ayaka was playing her best tennis to finish out the match. Sora was getting nervous as the match got closer to being over. She was playing it too safe.

Now it was championship point for Ayaka up 5-4. Ayaka hit a hard serve into Sora's backhand corner. Sora barely reached it. The ball flew from her racquet and was flying into the alley. Sora watched, waiting for the ball to bounce. If it landed in the alley, Ayaka would win the match. Neither player moved.

The ball would have landed in the alley but it clipped the net on the way over to Ayaka's side. It hit the net at such an angle that the ball changed course and bounced softly on Ayaka's side.

Sora breathed a sigh of relief. That had been close. From that point on Sora resumed her aggressive play, pressing Ayaka with her shots. Ayaka was still thinking about the match point she had missed. She had narrowly missed her shot at the national championship by a lucky shot.

Finally it was match point again this time for Sora, up 6-5. Sora held the ball in her hand to serve. You could hear a pin drop in the stadium as everyone waited for Sora to serve. Sora tossed the ball farther out than normal. She jumped inside the court lines to hit the serve and sprinted up to the net. By the time Ayaka hit the ball Sora was on top of the net. Ayaka looked up and saw Sora there but only after she hit the ball. Sora put the ball away easily and fell to the ground on her back, hands covering her face. She couldn't believe it. She won.

"Game, set, and match, Miss Takenouchi. 2-6, 6-4, 7-5" said the umpire.

Sora raised her fist in the air from her spot in the ground. Sora's friends rushed onto the court to celebrate with her. Sora didn't have to get up because her friends grabbed her and carried her off. She laid back on the support of their arms and watched the clouds above her. She felt like she was soaring with them.

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It had been a week since Sora won her match against Ayaka. Though things were still abuzz from it. Sora was featured in Japan's feature tennis magazine and various periodicals. All sorts of people suddenly wanted to meet here. Her time was getting more cluttered. In the midst of it Sora tried to keep her priorities. One in particular was calling today. Tai and she agreed to meet at their favorite just to talk the way they did on a pretty normal basis now.

"Well if it isn't the national champ!" said Tai as Sora joined him.

"Great, fantastic, wonderful." Said Sora, a smile lighting up her face as she sat down.

"So how's the scholarships?" asked Tai, giving Sora a kiss,"They still rolling in?"

"Yeah. I can go to just about any school in the country that has a tennis program. And some places that aren't in this country."

"So where are we going to go?" asked Tai.

"I don't know, pretty much wherever we want. We could go check out some schools, together." Said Sora.

"I like the sound of that. Where to first?" asked Tai dropping an arm on Sora's shoulder.

Sora looked out from the gazebo at the park and city around her. College would be a big step into the real world. Fortunately it looked like she wouldn't have to face it alone.

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**Well there it is.... gotta go press the complete button. My first full fanfic. I'm a little sad it's over. **

**I want to write some more Taiora stuff I just need a good idea. I really like the Taiora stuff! If you think you've got a good one or even if you just want me to read one of yours tell me about it. I'm always up for a Taiora.**

**Please review this chapter or my story as a whole. Since this is the last chapter I will respond to every review no matter how minute or offensive it is.**

**Bye guys! Thanks so much for reading!**

**-Jelotto**


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